Bengal police CID detains Bangladeshi national in Trinamool minister bomb attack case

The West Bengal CID on Wednesday detained a Bangladeshi national in connection with the blast in Murshidabad's Nimtita Railway Station in which state minister Jakir Hossain and over 20 others were injured. 

Hossain, Trinamool Congress MLA and the minister of state for labour, was waiting at platform number 2 to catch a train to Kolkata around 10 pm on February 17 when the blast occurred, seriously injuring him and the others. "We have detained one person and investigation is underway," news agency PTI quoted a senior CID official as saying. Hossain and the other injured persons are undergoing treatment at a state-run hospital in the city.

Mamata Banerjee alleges conspiracy

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had alleged the bomb attack on Jakir Hossain was part of a conspiracy as certain people were "pressuring" him to switch over to another party. Banerjee, who went to the SSKM hospital to inquire after his condition following the incident, hit out at the railways for its "lack lustre" way of functioning.

"It was a preplanned attack on minister Jakir Hossain. Some people have claimed the blast was remote controlled. It is a conspiracy. Some people (party) were pressuring Jakir Hossian to join them for the last few months. I don't want to disclose anything more as the investigation is on," Banerjee told reporters.

The attackers apparently knew about Hossain's movement and must have been tailing him, she said. Banerjee said not just the CID, but state STF and Counter Insurgency Force (CIF) will assist in the probe.

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"How can the railways deny their responsibility for security lapses when the attack happened at a railway station? There were no security personnel at the station at the time of the attack. There was no light, it was completely dark. What was the railway police doing?" she asked. The railways should cooperate in the investigation, she said.

The BJP leadership, meanwhile, slammed Banerjee for trying to divert public attention from the failures of the state government. "The incident proves that law and order has ceased to exist. Does the railways run the state? Such theories won't help. She has failed both as state home minister and the Chief Minister," state BJP vice president Jaiprakash Majumdar said. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had also called for an NIA investigation into the blast.

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