The death of a seven-year-old boy in a crude bomb explosion on Wednesday at Bhatpara in West Bengal sparked a war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and Opposition parties.
The boy was trying to pick up something beside railway tracks Kakinara and Jagaddal in North 24 Parganas district when the crude bomb went off. Another child also sustained serious injuries and his hand was blown off in the explosion. The incident occurred at around 8.30 a.m. in ward number 10 of Bhatpara Municipality.
Bhatpara, lined with century-old jute mills, has been on the boil since 2019, particularly after the local MP Arjun Singh shifted from Trinamool Congress to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Though the MP has returned to Trinamool almost five months ago, yet incidents of violence, murders and crude bomb attacks have continued.
Local BJP MLA Pawan Singh, who is Arjun Singh’s son blamed the police and said despite bringing illegal activities to the light of police nothing has been done. “The situation was never such before 2019,” the MLA complained. Arjun Singh blamed it to gambling and said that crude bombs are stored by people indulging in such illegal activities in the dark.
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar alleged that West Bengal is turning out into a factory of illegal arms and bombs. He said that bombs are being stored in view of the upcoming panchayat polls. Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that outsiders are involved in such acts and the BJP is trying to use such unfortunate incidents against the ruling party.
The incident at Bhatpara is not the first in the State where children have been at the receiving end of crude bomb explosion in the State. On September 17, crude bombs were hurled on terrace of a school in Titagarh in the same district. In April this year, five children were injured in a crude bomb explosion at in State’s Malda district.
