Kolkata, March 18 (IANS) Seven live gelatin sticks were recovered from the back seat of a private bus in a suburb here, police said Wednesday.
'We have recovered seven gelatin sticks from a private bus late Tuesday night at a bus stand of Bidhan Nagar,' sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Suvankar Bhattacharya told IANS Wednesday.
'The Kanpur-made sticks were all active... if only set with a battery, there could have been a massive explosion,' Bhattacharya said.
It was the conductor of a private bus who first noticed the sticks wrapped in the mosquito-net under the back seat.
'We parked the bus for the day and were about to make our bed inside the vehicle when I saw something wrapped inside the mosquito-net. Later, I found these heavy sticks and called the driver,' said Shyam, conductor of the bus.
'Neither of us knew what these were. We informed the nearby Bidhan Nagar (East) police station. The police came and said these were powerful explosives. We don't know who hid these inside the net and when,' he said.
Bomb-disposal squad personnel were immediately called along with sniffer dogs and the sticks were de-activated.
The SDPO said the police are looking for the culprits.
'The bus runs between Bidhan Nagar and Kolkata's adjoining Howrah town. So it is evident that whoever left the sticks got into the vehicle on this route. We are investigating who left the explosives inside the bus, when and why,' Bhattacharya said.
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