Rusted bomb found at agricultural field in Uttarakhand, triggers panic

A rusted bomb weighting about 20 kg was recovered from an agricultural field at a village in Roorkee on Saturday, triggering panic among people in the area.

A man found the 1.5ft long bomb at a sugarcane field in Karaundi village in the morning and informed authorities.

Police reached the spot and cordoned off the area. They launched a drive in nearby agricultural fields to spot any other similar object.

A sub-inspector of bomb disposal squad, Lalit Mohan, said the bomb was a diffused and discarded by the army.

“We got information of a suspected bomb spotted in a sugarcane field. The bomb disposal squad personnel took over the diffused bomb in their possession,” said superintendent of police (rural) Manikant Mishra.

Pradeep Chauhan, a villager, said he spotted some iron piece at the sugarcane field in the morning. Chauhan said when he came closer to it, he discovered it to be a bomb.

“I called on nearby farmers and we immediately called police. As precautionary measure, we kept distance from the object,” said Chauhan.

Several cases of spotting of diffused or rusted bomb came to light in Roorkee due to presence of an army cantonment and Bengal Engineering Group’s regimental centre.

Two years ago, a diffused bomb got exploded in Roorkee, killing a class six student, who had spotted the object lying near a school and kept it in his bag.