390 people booked, live bombs seized in Bengal raids

Bengal police said on Sunday said that it seized 112 live bombs, eight firearms and arrested 390 people from several parts of Birbhum district during raids conducted on Saturday and Sunday to control political violence.

On Sunday morning, the bombs were seized from Labhpur, Sadaipur and Parui police station areas.

Birbhum district police superintendent Shyam Singh said: “Among those who have been arrested, many have criminal records. We will continue to conduct raids to recover illegal weapons and bombs.”

A police officer who took part in the operation said bombs were seized in the Darbarpur area of Labhpur where a powerful blast destroyed an abandoned one-storied the structure inside a health centre three days ago. Bombs were also recovered from the Sattor area of Parui. Some criminals threw bombs when police reached the village.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh described the raids as an eyewash. “Everybody knows that Birbhum is the womb of violence in Bengal. So many of our supporters have been killed and assaulted there. What were the police doing all these days?” asked Ghosh.

Addressing a meeting of BJP MPs and MLAs in Kolkata, Ghosh got emotional in the middle of his speech. “I feel guilty when I lay wreaths on the bodies of our party workers. We have lost so many of them,” he said.

“BJP is making false statements. It is public knowledge that we have lost more men in violence,” said urban development minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim.

Police raided several places in Sadaipur, Mallarpur, Nanoor, and Rampurhat. At Mallarpur, a local club was destroyed by a blast in a densely populated area on 29 June. There was no casualty which, local people, said was a miracle.