Advani escapes bomb attack in Madurai

Senior BJP Leader L.K.Advani escaped from an attack on his life in Madurai on Saturday morning. A crude pipe bomb was planted beneath a bridge in a village near Madurai in Tamil Nadu which was detected by a villager who passed by it and was later on defused.

Advani was scheduled to cross the bridge at Alampatti near Thirumangalam, about 25 kms from Madurai to reach Sriviliputhur in Virudhunagar district. Later the leader who was on Jan Chetna Yatra changed his route map and reached Sriviliputhur from where he was set to travel to Shencottah in Tamil Nadu- Kerala border.

Police said that the pipe bomb which was found out was five feet long which was hidden under a low level bridge  across a stream in Alampatti, the sources revealed the pipe to be made of  Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC).

A senior police officer revealed that the pipe was stuffed with explosives and was connected to a wire linked to a batterly which was kept half a kilometer away near to a palm tree in a deserted place. The wire was spotted by a village man named Mr.  Selvaraj (49) when he went to that place to answer nature's call and informed the village elders, who in turn alerted the police. Even Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) rushed to the spot. Senior police officer and BDDS personnel rushed to the spot and removed the crude bomb. It was latern on taken to the forest area and there they defused the bomb. A police official revealed that the bomb contained 7 kg of high explosive gelatin gel.

The detection of crude bomb on the route of Advani has caused a serious intelligence failure. And reportedly this is the third incident of crude bomb taking place in Madurai this year. The recent incident was on September 29 when a crude bomb was found inside a private bus.

News reported by AR for Newsvision

BJP's core group discusses Advani's proposed yatra

LK Advani's proposed yatra against corruption was on Sunday disussed threadbare in a meeting of BJP's core group.

The meeting held at Advani's residence today morning saw various suggestions from leaders like taking the yatra to the states which are going to polls next year and to begin it on October 2 to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.

The party sources said that the meeting was attended by the party president Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Bal Apte, Ananth Kumar and others also discussed contemporary issues.

Two more meetings with party's national office bearers and senior leaders are planned.  

In the three-hour longing meeting, there were suggestions that there should be breaks in yatra during festivals such as Dussehra. The yatra could roughly cover a distance of 6000 kms.

Some senior leaders of the BJP were of the view that it should be an anti-corruption yatra as the issue of corruption has reasonated across the country. While Advani is of the opinion that it should focus on clean politics good governance.

While leaders from states like Punjab, Uttaranchal, Goa and Uttar Pradesh want that the yatra should also pass through these states, some of the leaders in the meeting did not favour the idea.

Advani's announcement of undertaking a yatra across the country is also being seen as an attempt by him to get a trip over the party.

Gadkari had recently said the party will not declare  its prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections and the decisions would be taken after the polls.

New Reported by  AR for Newsvision