NIA refutes West Bengal Police's claim, says explosion was meant to harm and warn it

Refuting West Bengal police's statement that the blast near the NIA office in Kolkata on Monday was nothing but burst of a fire cracker, the premier investigation agency has claimed it was rather a lethal explosive aimed at harming NIA team and also to serve a warning against Burdwan probe.

Acting on NIA's claim, the union home ministry on Tuesday sought a detailed report on explosion from the West Bengal police.

"The NIA has sent the residue collected from the site of the explosion for forensic analysis. We have also asked for a detailed report from the West Bengal government on explosion," said a senior home ministry official.

The bomb explosion near NIA's office in the CRPF camp in Bidhannagar area of Salt Lake suburb in Kolkata at 7:30 p.m. on Monday came close on the heels of series of successful operations by the agency, including that of nabbing the Jamat-ul-Mujahideen of Bengal (JMB) chief of Indian operations Sajid, who is suspected to be the mastermind of Burdwan conspiracy.

Sajid alias Sk Rahamatulla was nabbed on Saturday near Kolkata airport by the West Bengal Police and was subsequently handed over to the NIA.

The NIA has also taken Sajid's close associate and key Jihadi motivator Zia-ul-Haque and key operative Amjad Sheikh in its custody.