Imphal, Nov. 3: A hand grenade exploded near the office buildings of two major daily papers here at 5 this evening, two hours after unknown persons fired three shots at the high security Babupara here.

Five persons, four passersby and an occupant of a car passing by, sustained splinter injuries in the explosion but no one was injured at Babupara.

The car was partially damaged.

The spot where the grenade exploded is about 50 metres from the offices of Sangai Express and Matamgi Yakairol dailies, located at Thouda Bhabok Leikai along the Imphal Airport Road. A small crater was left in the middle of the road where the grenade exploded.

Four of the injured were admitted to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences while one was admitted to a private hospital, Shija Hospital, here.

They are said to be out of danger.

Eyewitnesses told police that a convoy of security personnel was passing through the area when the explosion suddenly took place but no one could guess as to the likely target of the explosion.

It is yet to be ascertained whether someone was attacking the convoy.

Some residents suggested that the grenade could have fallen from the convoy.

The police and employees of the two newspapers could not say how the grenade exploded. “I was sitting at my desk. Suddenly I heard a loud explosion. I thought some tyre had burst. But it turned out to be a grenade explosion,” A. Chaoba, a journalist with the Matamgi Yakairol, said.

Police refused to speculate on how the grenade exploded. “We are investigating it,” was the only reply a senior police official on the spot would give.

The police have launched a search in the Babupara incident but no one has been arrested so far. The chief minister’s office bungalow and the official quarters of ministers and legislators are located in the area.

In an unrelated development, the police said bodies of five of the seven suspected militants killed by Assam Rifles in an “encounter” at Andro Sanapat in Imphal East on November 1 would be cremated if their families did not turn up to accept the bodies by tomorrow.

Two bodies, that of Oinam Girani and Oinam Maipaksana, have been identified and accepted by their family members.

The families had claimed that suspected security personnel in civil dresses took away Girani and Maipaksana from their houses at Eshikha in Imphal East on October 22.

But they accepted the bodies today after chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh assured the families last evening that they would be paid ex gratia.