Police suspect explosive in flight placed in Thiruvananthapuram

The crude explosive material detected in the cargo hold of Kingfisher flight on Sunday is suspected to have been placed while the aircraft was parked at the airport in Thiruvananthapuram.

According to police sources, an indication to this effect was given in the First Information Report submitted before a local court here yesterday.

The flight from Bangalore arrived here at 8.05am and the explosive wrapped in a Malayalam newspaper was spotted about 10 minutes later from the cargo section by a cleaning staff engaged by the airline, the FIR submitted in the first class judicial magistrate court here said.

The suspicion that the incident had a local connection was "reinforced" as the low-intensity material — a mixture of
potassium chloride, ammonnia and sulphar - was wrapped in two layers of paper, first of which was a question paper of 10th standard model exam held in Kerala last year, the sources said.

Since Monday evening, investigators have zoomed in on three persons, including a cracker dealer, whose statements reportedly offered some clues, the sources said.

They were were taken into custody from Palode near Nedumangad town, about 25km from Thiruvananthapuram, while pursuing a lead in the form of markings in the Malayalam newspaper in which the crude device was wrapped, they said.

The sources said ground-handling for the airline, which was engaged by an agency to which the job was outsourced, were
also under close watch.

Meanwhile, NR Das, director general of CISF, the agency in charge of airport security, would arrive here for a review of the security system at the airport, they said.