12 killed in blast in firecracker unit in Midnapore

KOLKATA: Pingla, a small administrative division in the Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal, got rudely awakened on Wednesday night by the sonic boom of a terrible explosion in a fireworks factory, in which 12 persons were instantly killed and four others severely injured.

Experts are convinced that the Pingla explosion was actually much more intense than the one that had taken place at Khagraharh in Burdwan district on October 2, 2014, in which two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists were killed and third injured. The police had recovered 55 improvised blast devices, RDX, wrist watches and SIM cards. The Burdwan blast had taken place in a house owned by Nurul Hasan Chowdhury, a Trinamool leader, who lived in another house across the road. The incident had stirred a hornet's nest and had made life very uncomfortable for Mamata Banerjee.

Taking no chances this time, the chief minister ordered a CID inquiry. At a government function in south 24-Parganas, she told the media: “An explosion took place at Pingla and several persons have died. I have ordered a CID investigation.

How can so many fire crackers be prepared at one place and how can so many explosives be accumulated in one place ? CID will probe into all these aspects.”

But this doesn't seem to have pacified a furious Opposition that’s on the lookout for every single opportunity to lash on the state government. BJP state president Rahul Sinha said on Thursday that the ruling party had been allowing miscreants and terrorists to use the soil of West Bengal to carry on subversive activities.