[kuzbaslachek]

The Chennai police recovered three identical, crude bombs from different locations in the city in less than an hour on Monday. At least two of them were found in crowded places — one outside an ice cream parlour in Mylapore and another outside a government college in MKB Nagar. The third was found on the terrace of a house in Elephant Gate.

The first bomb was defused after Sudhakar (40), a gold merchant, living on the first floor of a three-storey building on Wall Tax Road, noticed a suspicious object in a flower pot kept on the parapet wall of an adjacent house, owned by one Sivakumar. The bomb detective and disposal squad (BDDS) and the police were called in immediately around 7.15am. They cordoned off the area before inspecting the object. After a thorough check, BDDS team members confirmed that it was a “country bomb”.

The second bomb was spotted at Mylapore around 7.30am. Again, a BDDS team was called in. The third one was spotted outside the Ambedkar Arts College in MKB Nagar around 8am. It was similarly defused. In both Mylapore and MKB Nagar, police said they received tip-offs from passers-by about a suspicious object lying on the roadside. At all three locations, the object recovered was a round plastic object stuffed with explosive material.

A police officer, who provided a description of the objects, said, “Someone had stuffed explosive material inside ball-shaped containers and drilled a small hole (1.2 cm diameter) into the ball. A small PVC pipe was inserted into the hole and it protruded out for at least 2.5cm. A wick was inserted into the explosive material and it was taken out of the pipe. The whole thing was wrapped in a cloth,” a police officer narrated. Experts collect explosive samples

Forensic experts were pressed into service at all locations. They are believed to have collected samples. However, a sniffer dog brought to the police station could not identify the material as an explosive.

A member of the dog squad said the animal might have failed to identify the material because it was not of heavy density like RDX.

Another police officer said, “If the bomb had gone off, it would definitely have created damage to the place and people in the vicinity."

Elephant Gate police have registered a case and special teams have been formed to nab the culprits. Police have detained eight suspects and begun interrogation.

- times of india