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.

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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.