- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, August 31, 2022 : Following a hiatus of 14 years, people of Tripura once again witnessed another series of four bomb blast at Sekerkote tea garden area under West Tripura district, which is about 14 KMs away from Agartala city on the late night of Tuesday last.
In 2008, people in Agartala city witnessed a series of five bomb blasts in the evening within 45 minutes span leaving four killed and more than 100 were injured while unexploded bombs were defused.
A widespread tension triggered Sekerkote tea garden area when the anti-social elements exploded four bomb blasts on Tuesday night.
Reportedly, the first bomb exploded in front of the gate of Subhankar Dey’s house, a local resident adjacent to Bikramgar Tehsilder office followed by explosion of second one a little far away from his house. Soon after, two more bomb blasts took place at New Market and Motor Stand of Sekerkote area. Instantly, the smell of gunpowder fills the entire area. The intensity of the explosion was so high that its sound was heard from a distance of 4 to 5 KMs. However, the blast did not cause any damage to the general public.
As the Durga Puja celebration is a month away, all clubs had started construction of marquees in full swing. The place where bombs blasted is near to Aikatan Sangh (local club) where a good number of youths were working. Immediately after the explosion, youths gathered from the club and reached the spot. Local youths booked another youth identified as Prasenjit Ghosh while his companions managed to escape.
In the meantime, the former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb witnessed this incident on his way back to Agartala after inaugurating the Ganesh Puja at Bishalgarh under Sepahijala district. Later, he stopped the vehicle convoy and immediately reported the whole matter to the West Tripura district’s Superintendent of Police after talking with the locals.
Meanwhile, the local agitated crowd recently fed up with the violence of anti-social elements in the area and blocked the national highway in the area adjacent to the Sekerkot tea plantation, demanding action against them. A large police force including Additional Superintendent of Police of West District, SDPO of Amtali, and OC of Amtali police station rushed to the spot within moments of receiving the information.
As a result, after talking to the locals and being assured to take strict action against these traitors, the blockade of the national highway was lifted. The police also took complaints from locals and started investigations and visited the blast site.
According to sources, it is suspected that negotiation trade is behind this bombing. In the area adjacent to the Sekerkot railway station, the construction of an oil depot of Indian Oil Corporation Limited is in progress. Mithun, a local former TSR worker and now identified as a social rebel of the area, demanded a hefty commission from the contractor. But in the meantime, the local Club Aikatan Sangh of Sekerkote area became a thorn in the road. They also demanded some money from the construction contractor for incidental expenses of Durga Puja.
As a result, under pressure from both sides, Contractor agreed to pay some money to the club authorities, but Mithun was deprived which cannot be accepted by the antisocial Mithun. As a result, the source reports that this bombing was done to assert their dominance by creating an atmosphere of panic among the people of the area.
However, in this incident, the fortunes turned upside down for the antisocial Mithun. According to local sources, incidents like public outrage may happen to him anytime if the local residents get within reach of him. The OC of Amtali police station along with the SDPO were on the spot till about 2:30 in the night. There is a lot of anger in the area over the incident.
Amtali police station official informed that a case 134/2022 has been registered against 12 persons under sections 120b, 384, and 427 of IPC and investigation is going on. So far, no arrests have been made.
