Army team visits underwater bomb dumps in Bhakra line

FATEHGARH SAHIB: After TOI reports exposed the presence of live bombs and mortars in Bhakra Main Line (BML) and its distributary Narwana Branch, a high-level team of the Indian Army on Saturday visited six such spots. A team of divers, accompanying the Army team, took out a few mortar bombs from waters for quick inspection.

While, Army officials refused to directly interact with the mediapersons present on the spot, the divers later confirmed that the officials have made it clear to the local police that these were live bombs that were potentially dangerous. The Army team recommended that a strategy should be formulated to bring these out from the canal and disposed of in a controlled manner.

Sirhind police station SHO Gurmeet Singh, who was present with the Army team at all the six spots, said that it was a matter of national security.

The divers, who had earlier reported bombs were lying at five spots along the BML and its distributary, told the Army officials that two days ago they had found more mortar bombs dumped near a bridge in Nauganwan village near Bassi Pathana. When Army officials inquired about the source of these bombs and how these ended up in the canals and were told that many of these reached Mandi Gobindgarh in containers of scrape that had been imported by the local steel industry from the Gulf countries.

Before leaving the spot, the Army officials warned the drivers to avoid going in waters where the bombs were lying. They told the divers that any explosion in a device can trigger a chain reaction and cause huge devastation and thus these areas should be avoided while diving under the waters. They were also told not to use magnets under the water, which the divers usually use to grab coins thrown along the bridges.

It was after the TOI carried two detailed reports on the presence of bombs in the canal that the six-member team of the Army officials under the leadership of an official of Major rank visited the spots and carried out the inquiries.

Fatehgarh Sahib SP Harpal Singh said they had been in communication with the Army authorities since 2016. He said they were yet to find a way to take the explosives out of the canal as the water flowing in the BML cannot be reduced since it would disrupt supply to Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.

The TOI investigations had found that these mortar bombs, loaded with TNT, had got transported to Mandi Gobindgarh steel industry as scrap from war-torn countries through scrape dealers based in the Gulf Countries. These bombs had first been discovered by the divers in 2003, and later numbers of bombs found kept increasing over the years. If the divers, who spotted these bombs, are to be believed there are over 10 trucks loads of bombs lying in the canals in Fatehgarh Sahib, not far from the Mandi Gobindgarh industrial hub.

The Punjab state bomb disposal squad, which had visited these spots in 2017, had also confirmed that thousands of tonnes of mortar bombs were lying in the canal and while, these did not pose as much threat under water, they could still explode. Most of the bombs that have so far been found under the waters are either used in the aircraft or heavy guns.