Bomb squad explains disarming of explosive devices

A Bomb Disposal Squad or BDS operating in Naxalite areas of Chhattisgarh explained to a team from ETV Bharat about how the deadly IEDs or Improvised Explosive Devices planted by the rebels are deactivated.

Jagdalpur: Bastar region in Chhattisgarh state is a hotbed of Naxalite rebels who have carried out attacks in many areas including Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur and Narayanpur. Their weapon of choice appears to be the Improvised Explosive Device or IED.

In the last few years, IEDs planted by the rebels have claimed many lives and the Bomb Disposal Squad or BDS of the Bastar region has played an important role in finding and defusing them.

A team from ETV Bharat reached ground zero to know how the BDS works and its members organised a mock defusal of an IED.

With the help of a sniffer dog, the team first locates the bombs and then they are defused carefully. Constable Mahendra Singh Sahni, a member of the BDS team, said that in the last one and a half years, the BDS had defused three IEDs from different areas in the Bastar district.

"If we talk about the last 5 years, more than 25 IEDs have been defused by our team which consists of seven members. There are two sniffer dogs also in the team, named - Tuffy and Raka. They play an important role in locating the bombs," he said.

Constable Loknath Kashyap, a dog handler with the team said, Tuffy and Raka have been serving for the last six years and with their help, the team has defused more than 10 bombs. "These dogs are highly trained and play a major role in finding the bombs," he added.

The BDS is deployed in as many as seven districts of the Bastar region and the district police force and the paramilitary forces also have bomb disposal teams.