Bomb Disposal Squad deactivates bomb after four hrs

The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) of Alipurduar CID took almost four hours to deactivate a bomb on Thursday.

The bomb which was looking like a simple device, but was later found to be a complicated one, was deactivated by the CID BDS.

It was a harrowing time for BDS. Most of its officers were initially unable to comprehend the nature of the explosive.

The bomb was found in Alipurduar’s Subhaspalli area in an open ground. The locals, who spotted the bomb, called up the police.

The police officers took no further chance and vacated the area. The BDS was called up to deactivate it.

Initially, the BDS tried to understand the formation of the bomb. A scanner machine was brought in.

The officer placed the scanner near the bomb to ascertain its nature.

But the officer found difficulties in learning its nature. Then, the batteries of main device – which actually deactivates the bomb, were changed.

“We thought that changing the battery would address the problem. The scanner machine could not give us much information about the formation. The deactivation machine was also not working then,” said a source in CID.

One officer then rushed to change the wire of the bomb deactivation machine. The new wire was brought in. It was installed to the machine to deactivate the bomb in a proper way.

A local electrician then helped the BDS to add the new wire with the old wire and attached the combined wire in the machine.

The squad was then able to deactivate the bomb. The whole exercise took almost four long hours.

“It might have been any technical error. Our officer did not take any risk. They were calm in the situation and completed the job by taking extra hours,” said an officer.

However, the local residents were moved away from the spot.