Zee Media Bureau
Ranchi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday recovered nine live bombs, matching those found in Patna after the serial blasts, during a raid in the Hindpiri area here, police officials said.
According to the news reports, the bombs were recovered from a lodge in the capital city of Jharkhand.
Additional Director General of Police SN Pradhan said the explosives were recovered by local police, who have been following a lead for the past two days.
Police also seized 19 gelatin sticks and two clocks fitted to the bombs, Inspector General of Police (Zonal) MS Bhatia said.
Each bomb consisted of three pipe elbows, he said, adding the explosives were recovered from a booked room in the lodge.
The recovery of the bombs comes close on the heels of the arrest of Ujjair Ahmad from Doranda locality here on October 30 in connection with the Patna serial blasts.
Superintendent of Police Saket Kumar Singh said the bombs were recovered during a raid.
"Police have rushed to the spot and the raid is on," he added
The police officials further said that they gathered information of the live bombs while interrogating Mohammad Imtiaz Ansari who was arrested by the Bihar police as a key suspect in Patna serial bomb blasts.
The serial blasts rocked the Patna city on October 24, 2013 ahead of the BJP`s PM aspirant Narendra Modi`s `Hunkar rally`.
Allegedly, tech-savvy Indian Mujahedeen’s (IM) Jharkhand chief Mohammad Tehseen Akhtar and Imtiaz planned the Patna blasts.
Senior Superintendent of Police Saket Kumar Singh said all the bombs were taken to Morahbadi ground to defuse.
"The bombs matched to those blasts (occurred) in Patna," he said.
Narrating on the sequences that led to the timely seizure of the explosives in the capital, Singh said during raids it was established that four or five persons involved in the activities were seen at Ormanjhi situated on the outskirts of Ranchi.
From there, he added, the police traced the lodge and seized the explosives.
Noting that there was no arrest so far, the SSP said after the nabbing of Ranchi resident Manjar Imam, the alleged operative of Indian Mujaheedin, by the NIA and the present incidents clearly pointed that Ranchi was more than a sleeper cell of terror activities.
Following the seizure, the police issued an alert over Gujarat chief minister Modi’s scheduled visit to Jharkhand in December.
Jharkhand director general of police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar said, “We have been able to defuse one bomb. The process is on to identify the capacity of the bombs and defuse all of them.”
With PTI inputs
