Siliguri, April 3: Two explosions in quick succession at a house in Siliguri this afternoon killed three persons, suspected to be members of a Nepalese militant outfit.

A fourth person, identified as Dipen Rai, was later arrested from the Naxalbari area close to the Nepal border in the evening. He was accompanied by two persons, suspected to have come from Nepal to whisk him to safety, who have been detained.

Rai, said to be from Nepal, was held on the basis of an injury that matched the account of an eyewitness who said a person bleeding from the forehead was seen running away from the damaged house.

A fully loaded 9mm pistol, two live explosive devices and three SIM cards have been seized from the house owned by a vegetable vendor at Champasari, 3km from Siliguri.

Preliminary investigations suggest mishandling of an explosive device might have triggered the blasts.

“The first explosion occurred around 1pm, the second three minutes later. Four persons, including a woman, were inside the room,” said Rahul Srivastava, the Darjeeling superintendent of police. The three, said to be between 25 and 30, died later.

“The nature of the blasts suggests that high-quality explosives were used, which is uncommon among petty criminals,” the police chief added.

The vegetable vendor, Ramapadi Sha, told the police: “Three youths were brought to me by a local youth about two months ago. They wanted to rent a room and said they were computer students from Sikkim. The girl did not stay here but came every day and went back at night.” Sha has been detained.

“I saw a youth with blood on his forehead and arms running out from the house shouting that a gas cylinder had burst,” said Sangram Dey Das, who was in a school nearby when the explosions occurred.

The blasts came close on the heels of urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya’s statement that “foreign powers are trying to take advantage of the situation in the hills”.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which wants Siliguri and Dooars added to the Gorkhaland they have been demanding, said the blasts were part of a bigger plan to destabilise the democratic movement of the party in the plains.