Bangalore, November 18: Claiming that the bomb blast at the Sarajeeven Videocon shop at Paona bazar on November 16 in which one person died while four others were hurt was a genuine mistake, the proscribed PREPAK has apologised to the people and assured that all possible steps will be taken up so that such incident does not recur in the future.

In a statement, Chinglemba Mangang of the Central Committee said that the proprietor of the shop was first contacted about 6/7 days prior to the bomb attack for an audience.

However instead of responding to the message of the outfit, the proprietor turned down the request for an audience and sought the help of police commandos.

Plain clothed commandos were then deployed at his shop, claimed Mangang further.

On November 16, since combing operations were launched at Imphal and Bishnupur, there were no police commandos at the shop, said the statement and added that attack was launched then.

Asserting that the attack was not targeted at the public, the outfit explained that the attack was launched by a new recruit.

Taking care to ensure that the civilians were not, hurt the cadre lobbed the bomb towards the corner where the TVs and refrigerators are kept.

However since he lacked experience, the bomb hit a refrigerator and it rebounded causing injuries to the customers, it said.

Profusely apologising to the people, especially the family members of the deceased Ch Hemchand and the four others, Chinglemba Mangang said that it shares the pain and sorrow of the bereaved family as well as the families of the other four injured persons.

Taking note of the wide spread condemnations of the attack, the outfit said that it is always ready to acknowledge all positive inputs from the civil society organisations and the people.

However blindly dubbing an incident as terrorism without knowing the reasons, has the potential to sow seeds of misunderstanding, said Chinglemba Mangang and added that it also has the potential to cast the revolutionary movement in the State in the wrong light.

The outfit also apologised for the time it has taken to claim responsibility for it entailed summoning the commander concerned of the operation and questioning them.

To ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future, a meeting of the Central Committee will be held soon.

The statement further said that the bomb attack had nothing to do with the VC (Naba) and General Secretary (Subash) of the PREPAK.