IMPHAL, November 7: An IED was exploded at a shop of a betel leaf stockist at Thangmeibandh Lorungpurel Leikai in Imphal West district at around 10.40 pm today. Fortunately, it did not leave any human casualty.
The bomb blast occurred at the verandah of the rented shop of EGG Company that stocks betel leaves. The area is under the jurisdiction of Imphal Police station.
The owner of the rented shop has been identified as Sapam Nanao, 45, son of late Kullachandra of Thangmeiband Purel Leikai.
According to police sources, the blast is suspected to be of the same magnitude to the recent blast that took place at Dharmasala and Moirangkhom.
The window panes of the surrounding buildings were damaged by the impact of the blast.
The tin roof and gate of the shop has been blown away by the pressure of the blast and the neighboring houses of super specialist Cardiology, surgeon of RIMS Dr Chongtham Dhanaraj and Sapam Roben Singh’s got partial damage. And window panes of a bus bearing registration No MN01 1677parked near the blast site also got damage.
According to the proprietor of the EGG Company, Ngagom Maosetung (Naocha) said that the blast might be conducted by the suspected UG identified themselves as KYKL Lakpa group who gave a threat to the company since the last one month demanding Rs 10 lakhs. And regarding the threat, firing of gunshot took placed around two weeks before this incident.
The latest report at the blast side is that after the IED blast in front of the shop, there was also some few gunshot to the residence of the owner of the betel leaf company, the source further said.
After the blast, the SDPO Lamphel Aser, OC of Imphal police station RK Shantikumar, City police station OC Sudhir, OC CDO John and other police personnel rushed to the spot and conducted necessary inspection on the blast site.