The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Bomb scare incidents continue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Bomb scare incidents continue

Staff Reporter

Cooking gas leakage leads to explosion in a house at Golconda

HYDERABAD: Bomb scare incidents continued to rattle the State capital when an unstamped cover at the General Post Office, Abids, was mistaken for a bomb even as cooking gas leakage led to an explosion in a house at Golconda on Wednesday.

Postmen sorting out letters at the GPO grew suspicious when they stumbled upon an envelope without stamps in the morning.

It was addressed to one Munawar Ahmed, H.No. 11-1-306 of New Aghapura but not details of the sender were mentioned.

In the backdrop of the police campaign about suspicious objects following the bomb explosion in the Mecca Masjid, the staff examined the cover several times.

"They got scared as the cover made clinking sound when it was pressed," Abids police station SI P. Uma Maheshwara Rao told reporters.

Speculation

The staff dashed to the police explaining about the suspicious object. As word spread about the cover, speculation began among the GPO employees that it could be a bomb. The Abids police called in the bomb disposal squads and pressed into service sniffer dogs.

Even the BD team initially suspected that there could be some explosive material inside since the cover made a metallic sound when it was shaken.

They took it to a nearby open place and opened it only to find an identity card, photocopies of a driving licence and vehicle registration certificate in the name of Munawar Ahmed and two coins of one rupee denomination!

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief on learning that it was the coins that made the unnerving noise!

Meanwhile, an explosion in the house of a businessman, Syed Nazib Iqbal, created panic at Akbarbagh in Golconda fort area. The blast caused extensive damage to the house and left Iqbal's nephew Syed Mohd. Rafe, 19, with minor injuries.

The Golconda police, after examining the site, confirmed that cooking gas leaked from the pipe connected to the cylinder and filled the kitchen. "The spark emanating from the compressor of the fridge when it automatically got switched off after reaching the set temperature scale ignited the gas resulting in a blast around 1.30 p.m.," Asifnagar ACP B. Mahender Reddy said.

All articles in the kitchen, door and wooden frames of windows and doors were damaged. Windowpanes of a neighbouring house also got shattered.

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