Blast in Karnataka was ‘not accidental’ but an ‘act of terror’:  Top cop

The state’s top police official said on Sunday that the blast in Karnataka’ Mangaluru was “not accidental” but an “act of terror”.

“It’s confirmed now. The blast is not accidental but an act of terror with intention to cause serious damage,” the Director General of Police (DGP) wrote in a tweet.

 The Karnataka Police is probing deep into it along with central agencies, he added.

The main update concerns the Saturday event in which an autorickshaw caught fire; according to authorities, the driver and a passenger both suffered burn wounds. CCTV footage, which recorded the explosion, shows smoke billowing out of the autorickshaw in large plumes.

Around 5.15 pm, fire was spotted in an autorickshaw. The driver has said that fire was spotted inside a bag carried by the passenger. The driver and the passenger suffered burn injuries. We have shifted them to a hospital,” Police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said.

After the incident, forensic teams arrived at the location to gather samples.

An explosive device was discovered in an abandoned luggage by the Central Industrial Security Force earlier in 2020, which led to a scare at the Mangaluru International Airport, where a bomb disposal team then exploded it (CISF). The suspect later turned himself in, according to the case.