Two Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] workers were killed and two others seriously injured in a bomb explosion at Chettakkandy under the Kolavallur police station limits here on Saturday afternoon, in a suspected accident while making country-made bombs. The police identified the deceased as Kilambil Shyju (39) and Sudheesh (28), both local youths. The two injured have been identified as Ratheesh from nearby Chamathakkad and Nithish from Chellakkandy. The injured were first admitted to the Thalassery Cooperative Hospital and then rushed to a private hospital in Kozhikode.
Though local media reported that four people were injured in the blast, the police said they could so far confirm the injury of two. The bodies of the deceased have been brought to the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital for post-mortem.
According to the police, the explosion occurred at 1.30 p.m. Though the investigation was under way, the preliminary finding of the police was that the explosion occurred when country-made bombs were being made or transferred to a vacant plot in the area. The accident occurred in an uninhabited hill slope in Thrippangottur grama panchayat. The police reached the spot around 2 p.m. Bomb detection and disposal squad examined the spot of the incident. The police said that Chettakkandy, near Panur, was a CPI(M) stronghold that had witnessed clashes between rival CPI(M) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers. Senior police officers, including Additional Director General of Police (North Range) N. Shanker Reddy, visited the spot. The police said the bomb detection and disposal squad would conduct raids for explosives in areas near the site of the blast and nearby localities under the instruction of State Police Chief T.P. Senkumar. The squads in Kozhikode and Kannur started their search operation in the suspected areas using explosive detector and metal detector, the police said.
The incident occurred when the bombs were being made or transferred to a vacant area.
