The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Blast rips through school bus in Hyderabad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 13, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Blast rips through school bus in Hyderabad

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, NOV. 12. The string of blasts that have been rocking the city and its fringes for the last couple of weeks continued as one more explosion ripped through a school bus near the Jamai-Osmania railway station here early today.

Three other college buses parked near the Vignan school bus were partially damaged. Mahipal, a cleaner of the blasted bus, injured himself after he stepped on shards of glass while scurrying out after theblast.

It was obvious that gelatine was used in the blast and as a result windowpanes of three houses on the Jamai-Osmania-Adikmet road were also shattered.

The partially damaged buses belonged to the Progressive Engineering College, St. Mary's College of Engineering and Technology and CVR College of Engineering.

The bomb was planted beneath the Vignan school bus driver's seat. A crater of the depth of 16 cm and a width of 34 cm was formed at the site of explosion.

`Clues available'

The CLUES team, forensic experts and bomb disposal squad, who examined the scene, suspect the explosives to be the same nitro-glycerine-based material used in earlier explosions at Kalanjali in Saifabad, Kukatpally and Saroornagar. The front right tyre and a few metal sheets of the bus fell on the railway track, a few metres away.

The Police Commissioner, R.P. Singh, confirmed that non-electric detonators with safety fuse wires were used in the spate of blasts.

"We have concrete clues about the accused persons. They will be arrested soon," he remarked.

After 7 p.m., cleaners of the three buses usually sleep in one bus.

Sources said extremists of Telangana separatism ideology could be involved in the blasts, as most of the targets belonged to settlers from Andhra region of the State.

On Thursday night, the driver of Vignan bus, Mastan Vali, left for home.

Fifth explosion

"I heard a deafening noise around 4.30 a.m. and woke up to see the windowpanes of my front bedroom broken. Luckily, none was sleeping there," Ch. Srirammurthy, a retired bank employee, said.

This is the fifth explosion carried out with the same explosive substances and pattern. A gunny bag containing similar explosive material with 4.5 metre-long fuse wire was found planted in one of the theatres in Prasad's multiplex after Wednesday midnight. "This bomb planting, too, is obviously by the same gang," the police said.

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