IMPHAL: Three days ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia’s Gandhi to Imphal, a powerful blast killed one person and five others, including two women got wounded.
The incident occurred at Hatta Kangjeibung in Imphal on Wednesday where the Manipur tourism festival ‘Sangai Festival 2011’ is being celebrated.
The explosion took place at around 11 on Wednesday morning outside the main gate of the venue of the Sangai Festival in Palace Compound, which also houses the City Convention Centre and Manipur Film Development Corporation (MFDC).
These two newly constructed buildings, located about 100 metres from the festival venue, will be inaugurated during the scheduled visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on December 3.
Mohammad Kora, 55, a rickshaw puller from Mayang Imphal in Imphal West district lost his limbs in the blast and later succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.
The rickshaw was completely destroyed in the explosion, which the police said they believed to be a powerful IED.
He was hired by the assailants at Hatta to deliver a box that wrapped the bomb inside the venue of the Sangai Festival which will be concluded this evening, and Rs 20 was also paid to him as fare by the unknown men.
The victim said before he succumbed to his injuries at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) hospital at noon Wednesday.
He, however, did not tell about to whom the box was to be delivered.
Kora brought the parcel and about to enter the venue when the bomb blew up outside the main gate. His limbs were ripped apart in the blast and died after half-an-hour after the incident and five persons, including two women were also injured.
The injured women were discharged from JNIMS after providing first aid but Oinam Surchandra, 37 and Oinam Mangolsana, both brothers from Kontha Khabam in Imphal West are under treatment at the Shija hospital.
However, their condition was not critical, sources said.
The injured women were identified as Ch. Vidyapati, 24, a private security guard who was on duty at the main entrance of the venue, and Y. Bala, 50, a civilian who came to visit the festival.
Meanwhile, Manipur Tourism Minister TN Haokip, who rushed to the scene after the blast, said it was an “unfortunate incident and highly condemnable act.”
He said the 72-hour bandh imposed by the banned Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) MC group exempted entertainment from the purview of the strike on its first day of the bandh i.e. November 28.
“I was informed only today that KCP-MC has banned everything from the second day of the bandh”, Haokip said without pointing his finger directly to the militant group for the terror attack.
KCP-MC has called the general shrike to protest the killing of one of its cadres by security forces in an encounter which took place November 20 near Sora in Thoubal district during which Thoubal district commandos claimed to have shot dead one KCP-MC cadre during a firefight and one 9 mm pistol was also recovered from the slain militant.
The militant group, on the other hand, maintained that the cadre was killed in a fake encounter.
Wednesday’s blast occurred amidst hectic preparations in the Imphal city for the December 3 visit of Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi during which the two central govt leaders would inaugurate City Convention Centre and MFDC Complex at Palace compound and Capitol Project at Chingmeirong here. (NNN)