Woman bomber kills 3 in Bihar's Ara court in an attempt to free prisoners

Arrah (Bihar): Three people, including a police constable, have been killed by a woman bomber in the Arrah civil court in Bihar on Friday.

This does not look like a terrorist attack, officials said, but an attempt to free prisoners while they were being produced in court.

The bomber, a woman in a hijab, was talking on her mobile phone and walking up to a prisoner van when the bomb went off – just seconds after she was stopped by a police constable. Senior officers said the bomb burst when she was trying to take it out of her clothes. She had tried to time her blast when prisoners would get out of the van for a routine hearing in the civil court, officers felt.

The blast killed the constable and another person, as well as the woman bomber. Sixteen people have been injured in the explosion.

In the melee, two prisoners -- Lambu Sharma and Akhilesh Sharma -- fled the court premises. Lambu Sharma is an accused in a previous blast case in Bihar.

An alert has been sounded after the blast. The administration has stepped up security of other civil courts in the state.

“We are still investigating the case. Security in the state has been stepped up and that in various civil courts, including the Patna civil court, has been strengthened after the incident,” senior officer Gupteshwar Pandey said on Friday.

The incident also raises questions on the security system of courts. A former home secretary said, “Prima facie, it doesn’t seem to be a terrorist attack. The blast was carried out in order to help few prisoners escape from the court while they were being produced.”

Arrah (Bihar): Explosion in civil court premises, one killed pic.twitter.com/fKAwLKQriY

— ANI (@ANI_news) January 23, 2015