Police seized 112 country-made bombs from the coastal hamlet of Kooththenkuzhi near here during a surprise raid conducted on a defunct fishermen cooperative society building on Tuesday.
The confiscated explosives, stockpiled by one of the two rival groups in the village to settle their enmity, were taken to a nearby private godown. They are likely to be safely defused in a day or two.
Following information about the improvised explosives, the police team conducted a comprehensive search to seize the bombs, all kept in plastic trays and hidden in the cooperative society building.
This is not the first time the police have seized the explosives in the village notorious for making bombs.
Members of two rival groups of Kooththenkuzhi started making country-made bombs for protecting themselves from attacks.
Though the explosives were used liberally in the past, the police started conducting surprise raids on the village when P. Kannappan was the Superintendent of Police.
As raids were conducted frequently based on information the police could gather and country-made bombs seized in large numbers, the clashes were under control.
When the police chose to keep a distance from the village following the anti-Kundankulam Nuclear Power Project struggle, eight persons were killed in a blast in Tsunami Colony near neighbouring Idinthakarai.
Only after this incident did the police start conducting surprise checks based on renewed intelligence inputs from the village and it led to seizure of country-made bombs.
Police found the explosives in
a cooperative
society building
in the village
