RAIPUR: A village in insurgency-hit Dantewada district of Bastar was left shell-shocked when some boys were found playing with what looked like mortar rockets. Police and bomb disposal specialists scrambled to the hamlet and destroyed the four shells.
Dantewada SP Siddharth Tiwari said that they were signal shells, meant for illumination, and "were not live". He has ordered an inquiry to find out how the shells ended up in the village.
Illumination shells are used in night operation, mostly combat, to illuminate a specific area. Each shell carries a small explosive charge to propel it to a height of 500-700 metres where it splits in two, ejecting a bright flare that slowly descends to the ground under a parachute.
On Friday, a group of teens found four of such "signal shells" on the banks of Dankini river close to an anganwadi centre in Manjhipadar village on the outskirts of Dantewada town and began playing with them. An anganwadi worker, who is the wife of a security personnel, saw them and quickly understood these might be rockets. She grabbed the shells from them and carried them to a safe distance from the houses and anganwadi.
She informed police and a bomb disposal squad sped to the spot. "They were expired signal shells which were not explosive in nature," SP Siddharth Tiwari told TOI.
"We had obtained permission from police headquarters to destroy all expired ammunition. A bulk of it, including 270 illuminating shells and some tear gas shells, were destroyed by security personnel on April 28 and 29,” he added. The shells were destroyed at Balood village near Dankini river, about 2km from Manjhipadar," said police.
"Prima facie, it appears that the four signal shells either misfired during the disintegration process and fell in Manjhipadar, or they ended up in the river and were carried to the neighbouring village," the SP said, adding that he has initiated an inquiry. “The ammunition was confiscated from the village and destroyed safely,” SP said.
