Policemen search for country bombs in and around Kooththenkuzhi

Policemen searched for country bombs in and around Kooththenkuzhi under Koodankulam police station limits on Monday.

Policemen searched for country bombs in and around Kooththenkuzhi under Koodankulam police station limits on Monday.

 Led by Inspector of Police, Koodankulam Police Station, John Britto, the police personnel and members of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad searched for country bombs in Kooththenkuzhi and adjacent Fatima Nagar and Sundankaadu villages and the surrounding areas. Sniffer dogs were also pressed into service. However, no improvised explosives were seized.

 Since Kooththenkuzhi, a coastal village, had witnessed in the past liberal use of country bombs during clashes between two rival fishermen groups, police would organize surprise checks in this hamlet and also in the nearby forest area where the warring groups used to bury the explosives. Country bombs buried in pits inside the forest had been recovered in the past.

 When members of one of the warring groups left Kooththenkuzhi and moved to Tsumani Colony on the outskirts of neighbouring Idinthakarai, the country bombs stockpiled in one of the houses went off accidentally killing seven persons including three children under the age of five in November 2013.

 In Idinthakarai, the epicenter of anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project agitations, three houses and a car were destroyed in country bomb attack in May 2014 and a country bomb that was being tested in the night of September 10, 2014 triggered tension again.

 Moreover, country bombs were also used by a section of the fishermen of Idinthakarai and Kooththenizhi in the past to chase away mechanised boats when they intruded into the ‘prohibited zone’ of 5 nautical miles from the shoreline for fishing.

 In the latest incident, the police registered case against 37 fishermen from Idinthakarai for allegedly hurling country bomb on a mechanised boat from Kanniyakumari for harvesting fishes in the ‘prohibited areas’ on February 8 last.