A crude bomb exploded on the railway track near the Rajendra Nagar terminus here on Saturday, barely an hour before Railway Minister Lalu Prasad was to take a train on the line to Banka.
PATNA: A crude bomb exploded on the railway tracks while four others found near the Rajendra Nagar terminus were defused on Saturday, barely an hour before Railway Minister Lalu Prasad was to take a train on the line to Banka.
However, nobody was hurt in the explosion as they were low-intensity bombs, Chief Public Relations Officer of East Central Railway (ECR) A K Chandra said.
A railway employee heard the low intensity crude bomb go off at 10 am and informed the police, he said.
The police found another four unexploded crude bombs in a bag on the track and defused them, Superintendent of Police (City) Vikas Vaibhav said.
It was being ascertained whether the bombs were planted on the track by saboteurs, Vaibhav said.
Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force personnel combed the tracks for more explosives. The terminal building was also thoroughly searched.
The Railway Minister later said he had alerted Railway safety officials and asked the state government to step up security around all the stations.
Asked whether his special train was the target, Prasad said "the intentions were bad and it was the handiwork of anti-socials".
Asked whether he blamed the state government for the incident, Prasad sarcastically said, "You can well imagine the situation of the railway police in Bihar where a DIG-rank official is underground."
He was apparently referring to the reports of the DIG (Railway) Ajay Verma going underground after a Hajipur court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him for allegedly threatening a teacher with elimination.
Prasad later left for Banka to flag off an express train.
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