Two days before Vice President Hamid Ansari's visit to Kannur, a sack of detonators and fuse wires were seized from a private bus plying between Kannur and Kozhikode on Thursday.
A police person who was travelling in the bus found a suspicious box which was put under the last seat. When opened, it was found that the box contained around 300 detonators and 100 meters of fuse wires.
The seizure of detonators sent shock waves as the Vice president Hameed Ansari is to arrive in Kannur on Saturday morning for a function to distribute an award to the prime minister's principal secretary T K A Nair bestowed by the Kannur chamber of commerce and sponsored by the chairman of the Leela group of hotels, Capt Krishnan Nair.
The bus was detained at the Edakkad police station and the driver and conductor were questioned. However, the bus workers were not in a position to ascertain the identity of the person who had boarded the bus with the sack.
The police suspects that these explosives could be for the granite quarries which are located in the interior areas of Kannur. Interestingly, most of these quarries are working illegally.
Suprendiendent of police of Kannur district K P Philip, while speaking to rediff.com over telephone, said that the police have not ruled out any possibilities. However, he said that the detonators could be for the granite quarries and the owner of the detonator sticks would not have come out as the quantity transported may be over the allowed limits.
The police has, however, not ruled out any possible terror threat as Kannur has been an hot bed of terror related activities, as well as political clashes between the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha workers for the past three decades.
