Army's bomb disposal unit destroys live ammunition

The Indian Army has been tasked by the government to destroy around 1500 unexploded munitions, which has been illegally smuggled into the country in the past four-five years.
Codenamed Operation Sahyog-II, the 201 Bomb Disposal (BD) unit of the Indian army, under the Western Command in Chandigarh was tasked the job after the request came from the Delhi government. Op Sahyog-II began on May 11, 2011 and will conclude in the end of June, and till now the unit has demolished around 2000 munitions. Out of a total of 3500, the remaining 1500 will be destroyed on Friday.

The unexploded munitions, has been taken from the Tughlakabad-based Inland Container Depot (ICD), to the Indian Air Force (IAF) base Tilpat in Faridabad, where the operation will be carried out in different pits.

The munitions contain around 500-600 kg of explosive in it, but there is no radioactive material in it. The rusted munitions includes artillery 155 mm shells, hand grenades, rockets and 60-80 mm mortars, which has most likely come in from war-torn countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and South Africa. Under Op Sahyog-I, which was carried out in 2004, the BD unit demolished 320 munitions.

The chief engineer of the Western Command, Major General M Sabharwal said  that after the unit was alerted by the govt in July 2009, the operation began in five phases.