Ali at the Kharibari police station. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri, May 30: A resident of Islampur has been caught with explosives and detonators at Panitanki on the border with Nepal.

The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has seized 350gm “high intensity” and 2.5kg “low intensity” explosives, four detonators and a wire to be used as fuse from Abbas Ali, who was handed over to Kharibari police this afternoon. The nature of the explosives is yet to be identified.

“Based on a tip-off, our intelligence wing caught Ali at Doodhgate in Panitanki, 40km from here, when he was trying to cross over to Nepal with his friend yesterday. The friend, however, escaped,” said Rajesh Tikku, the deputy commandant of the 22nd Battalion of the SSB’s Ranidanga sector headquarters, who was present at the police station.

The explosives were later handed over to the army at Bengdubi, where they were detonated.

“We can comment on the type of explosives only after a chemical analysis. But initial examination suggests that at least four high powered bombs can be made with the material that we recovered from him,” said Tikku.

The SSB is yet to find out the motive behind smuggling the explosives but confirmed that Ali was headed towards Nepal.

“We had detained Ali around noon yesterday. He told us that he had come to Panitanki to meet a friend and had no idea of what the bag contained,” said Tikku.

The SSB official said he suspected that Ali had done this sort of job earlier too. Ali, who claimed he was a mason, recounted that he was on a rickshaw with his friend when some people (SSB men) challenged him.

“Before I could realise what was happening, my friend jumped off the rickshaw and fled, handing over the bag to me. Later I came to know that there were explosives inside,” Ali said at Panitankti.

Siddhartha Roy, the officer-in-charge of the Kharibari police station, 50km from here, said Ali would be produced in Siliguri court tomorrow “We will ask for his custody,” he added.

Siliguri and its adjoining areas have been on tenterhooks since April 3 when twin blasts in a house in Champasari killed three alleged bomb-makers. The arrest of the sole survivor of the blast, who had fled the spot, had revealed the hand of a Nepal based militant organisation in the incident.

Subsequently, explosives were seized from Mallaguri and Gurungbasti. The police, along with civic officials, then asked people to check the antecedents of the tenants to whom they rented out rooms.