Blast in shop kills ex-imam

Kolkata: An 82-year-old former imam of a Khardah mosque was killed in a

blast

at a

jewellery shop

on Tuesday. Police have detained the owner of the Khardah shop.

The incident took place around 3.30pm when victim Seikh Amir Ali, a resident of Khardah’s Bandipur Moralpara and a former imam of Bandipur Jama Masjid off Kalyani Expressway, was sitting in front of the ‘Kalpana jewellery shop’ opposite his house. The shop was then closed.

According to locals, they heard a sound of explosion inside the jewellery shop and upon reaching the spot they found Ali lying on the ground bleeding profusely. “A portion of the wall of the shop collapsed and the shutter was also broken into pieces. A chunk of the concrete wall was flung outside hitting our former imam,” a local said. Ali was rushed to the Khardah Balaram State General Hospital where he was declared brought dead. Shop owner Krishna Roy said a gas cylinder kept inside the shop burst triggering the explosion.