10 killed in Aurangabad blast

Bihar: Live bomb found during polls left unattended; 2 SHOs suspended

Ten people including seven children died at an Aurangabad village when curious villagers reportedly tried to fiddle with a cylinder bomb,left by the police for defusing,on Sunday. The police had found the bomb during the last phase polls on Saturday but could not defuse it despite several hours of attempts. Another expert team was supposed to arrive on Sunday morning.

The DGP has ordered a high-level probe into the matter and suspended station house officers of Dhibra and Deb police stations of Aurangabad.

The incident took place around 7 am on Sunday when over 20 villagers,mostly children,gathered at Pachokhar village under Deb to have a look at the cylinder bomb,which they believed had already been defused. There was no police deployment near the site as the forces had returned to base camps after Saturdays polls.

Pachokhar villagers are incensed at the gross police negligence and alleged that they had not been told about the bomb not getting defused. They admitted that some children approached the cylinder bomb with sticks,trying to move it further from village approach road.

The police have now deployed DIG,Gaya,to monitor situation and quell public anger at the village.

Rajkihsore Singh,a villager,squarely blamed the police for the negligence and demanded case of criminal negligence be registered against the superintendent of police and police station in-charge. We are not satisfied with just two suspension of SHOs. Ten lives have been lost and the police must own up responsibility for it. How can the police justify leaving the live bomb minus any police deployment to alert the villagers?

DGP Neelmani told The Indian Express: It is surely a case of police negligence. We have already suspended two SHOs and instituted an inquiry to know about the lower ranking policemen responsible for it. He conceded that the state needed more expert people in its bomb disposal squad to help avoid such incidents in future.

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Two policemen were killed on Saturday at Imamganj,Gaya,while trying to defuse a bomb.