Date:22/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/07/22/stories/2006072226410100.htm

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Country-made bomb found in BMTC bus

Staff Reporter

Explosive defused, teams formed to track down the culprits

DISASTER DEFUSED: Deputy Superintendent of Police Jagadish explaining to Commissioner of Police N. Achuta Rao about the crude bomb found in a BMTC bus, in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE : A crude country-made bomb was found inside a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus at the Kempe Gowda bus station on Thursday night.

The police, who diffused the explosive, are yet to ascertain who had planted the bomb in the bus. This is the first instance of an explosive being found in a State transport corporation bus in the city.

The police said that around 10.30 p.m., the bus (route number 87) arrived at the Kempegowda bus station from RPC Layout in Vijayanagar. A passenger, who was the last to alight the bus, told the conductor Devaraj that a small plastic bag containing some object was lying abandoned on a seat.

Mr. Deveraj opened the bag and found some object rolled in threads. He suspected that it could be an object of "banamathi" (black magic) and gave it to the BMTC security guard Pappanna, the police said.

While Mr. Papanna was looking at the object, the public told him that it could be a bomb and advised him to alert the police. On being informed, Krishnappa, a policeman who was on duty at the police outpost in the bus station, alerted his superiors.

The staff of the Bomb Detection Squad rushed there with sniffer dogs. After the dogs smelt an explosive substance, the personnel of Bomb Disposal Squad, attached to the State Intelligence wing, were summoned.

They took the explosive to a secluded area on Mysore Road and safely defused it in the presence of Commissioner of Police Neelam Achuta Rao in the early hours of Friday.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Gopal B. Hosur told The Hindu that such crude bombs, called "balloli" in north Karnataka, were normally used in the Rayalseema districts of Andhra Pradesh. The bomb would not have exploded unless it was hurled, he said. The drivers and conductors of the BMTC and KSRTC buses had been told to be on the alert and inform the police if they found any suspicious or abandoned articles.

Two teams have been formed to trace the persons who had planted the explosive.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has decided to install surveillance cameras at all its major bus stations within a month.