Despite Tamil Nadu coming under a security blanket after the May 1 twin blasts on a train in Chennai, a bomb blast rocked Cuddalore district on Saturday. A 34-year-old person was badly injured while he was allegedly making bombs in a house near Annamalai University at Chidambaram. The police are on the look-out for five of his associates, said to be at large.
The incident has raised safety concerns among people in this constituency reserved for Dalits, with barely two weeks to go for counting of votes polled in the recent Lok Sabha polls. Post-poll, minor incidents of caste clashes occurred in the district.
Only on Tuesday last did the ‘Q’ Branch CID of the Tamil Nadu Police arrest 37-year old Zakir Hussain, a Sri Lankan national suspected to be an agent of an ISI operative, in Chennai, and seize photographs of vital installations and counterfeit currency from him.
While the twin blasts on the Bangalore-Guwahati Express on Thursday eerily brought the shadow of terror to Chennai’s doorstep, the same day the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Rajasthan Police and the Tamil Nadu Police arrested Asraf Ali, an Indian Mujahideen operative, at Porto Novo near Chidambaram.
Saturday’s blast occurred in a house at Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, which was rented out by a retired professor to Arul, one of the university staff. On hearing a loud sound around 11 a.m., the neighbours alerted the police. The blast shattered the window panes of the house, and blood was found splattered across its floor.
Even as the police and Fire Service personnel rushed to the spot, five inmates of the house took the injured in an auto to hospital. Thereafter, they disappeared. The police now do not see any conspiracy, but initial investigation revealed that the injured was a rowdy element and allegedly involved in several murders in Dindigul and Theni districts.
Speaking to The Hindu , SP A. Radhika said: “It was a country-bomb blast of low intensity. The injured is identified as Mohanram from Dindigul, and he was allegedly involved in murder cases in Dindigul and Theni districts. The investigation is on.”
Mohanram was allegedly involved in 13 criminal cases, and he was manufacturing country-bombs in his friend’s place. He is believed to have lost both his eyes in the blast.
