Bomb squad personnel defuse the timer device on Sunday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Aug. 17: Bomb squad experts of the CID from Siliguri today defused the timer device which was found on the District Sports Association ground here yesterday.

The bomb which was kept inside a container of paint with Bangladesh written on it was connected to a clock by a wire. Malda district police chief Satyajit Bandyopadhyay said the explosive would be sent to Calcutta for forensic examination.

The police, however, could not throw light on who had brought the bomb and from where. A month-long trade fair has been going on close to the sports ground. “It appears that the criminals had targeted the fair,” an official said.

On August 4, another time bomb had been found at Biharitola in Baisnabnagar. No one had been arrested for this either. The recovery of two bombs in a fortnight has worried the police. “We are yet to ascertain if any militant organisation is involved. The sports ground is close to the Mahananda that flows down to Bangladesh. The explosive might have been brought from there as well,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Central intelligence officials said the bomb that was found here yesterday was similar to the ones used by the Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami, the Pakistan-based militant outfit with an affiliate in Bangladesh, in serial blasts in the country in 2005.

Three held

In South Dinajpur, three persons were arrested and five firearms and a live bomb recovered from them last night.

District police chief Kalyan Kumar Mullick said Majid Sarkar, 30, was picked up from Tapan on Thursday. A China-made revolver was found in his possession.

Based on Sarkar’s statement, raids were conducted in different places of Tapan yesterday and Mtiur Sarkar, 30, Aziz Sarkar, 31, and Heramba Barman, 30 were arrested. Three long-range and one ordinary pipeguns and a mascot were also seized.

“We do not think that the three arrested are ordinary criminals. We are trying to verify if they belong to any militant outfit like the KLO or the Maoist organisation, or not,” Mullick said.

The vigil along the 252km Indo-Bangladesh border in the district has been tightened following the recovery of arms, the district police chief added.