Other States - Orissa

Four hurt in blast

CUTTACK: Four persons, including a woman, were injured in a blast near a shop in the busy Badambadi bus terminus here on Monday night. While eyewitnesses claim it was a bomb blast, the police are of the opinion that a powerful cracker went off near a mobile phone shop around 9 p.m.

The injured were immediately taken to SCB Hospital where the doctors on Tuesday said that one person was discharged after initial treatment while the remaining three were under treatment and said to be out of danger. All the injured persons were customers of the mobile shop and a nearby pan shop.

The mobile shop owner, however, escaped unhurt as he was outside his shop at the time of the blast. It is believed that the bombing of the shop was aimed at spreading terror among shop owners who refuse to pay extortion money to local mafias.

Some policemen, however, see ‘previous rivalry’ as one of the motives behind the incident. “The mobile shop owner who was earlier involved in a check bounce case had enmity with another distributor of the locality,” claim the police.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu