Even as the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) denied on Friday its involvement in the blast in Jalpaiguri district which claimed five lives on Thursday, the West Bengal government said they are not ruling out the involvement of the separatist group in the explosion.
“We are not ruling out the involvement of any group, including the KLO. All the agencies of the State government are probing the blast and the investigation is at a primary state,” State’s North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb told The Hindu over phone from the district.
Mr. Deb, along with State’s Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee, visited the site of explosion and met the family members of the deceased and the injured.
The State government has announced a compensation of Rs. 2 lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs. 1 lakh for grievously injured and Rs. 50,000 to injured persons, Mr. Deb said.
While five persons have died, nine others have been injured in the explosion which seems to have been triggered by improvised explosive device on Bajrapara bridge under Kotwali police station.
Other than different investigating agencies of the State, a team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) inspected the site around the explosion. The team also collected samples from the spot.