Rudrapur: Sunday was not an ordinary day for Captain Vikas Malik, the team leader of the bomb disposal squad from 201 Counter Explosive Device Unit of Indian Army at Barabanki (UP), which had arrived in Jaipur on Thursday to dispose off over 550 missiles lying buried in Patrampur village. It was in the morning when the 12-member team arrived at the disposal squad and soon after clearance, Captain Malik noticed remnants of few live explosives were lying uncovered in the pit dug to dispose those off. He took the initiative and wrapped in anti-bomb suit, Malik alone took those remnants out successfully, while he asked his team and a few villagers to stay away.On Sunday, the team disposed off 20 more missiles increasing the count to 270 in just three days. Residents of Jaspur in Udham Singh Nagar district who have been living near a proverbial tinderbox (more than 550 missiles, mortar shells and high-explosive ordnance material have been lying in the area as scrap for the past 14 years) are now relieved.Talking to TOI, Captain Malik said, “Some remnants went unnoticed during clearance and I had to pick those owing to risk involved during the explosion. We soldiers are never scared of daring and adventurous operations. The team is disposing the explosives at Amaangarh gate Feeka river in village Hajeero. The spot was identified owing to suitable amount of sand reserves here. However, the bigger ones will take time and will be destroyed in smaller numbers at a time.”“The transportation vehicles being used have been protected for any untoward incident by putting a layer of one feet sand on the floor and sandbags on the periphery. Simultaneously, 15 feet deep pits of size 25 X 25 sq ft are dug at the disposal site. We are exploding these from a distance of 700 metres using wire and detonation system,” Malik added.The army team is assisted by the local police, administration, fire department, forest department and the pollution control board. Admin has declared the Feeka river area dangerous and the area has been temporarily vacated.These missiles/live shells/explosive devices came along with scrap purchased from Tughlakbad, Delhi by MSG steel factory on December 21, 2004, and were discovered after a steel factory worker died from explosion while melting the scrap. The explosion also damaged a few houses in the area.The missiles, 67 big and 488 small, were subsequently buried in the ground and a security cover was also provided at the site to prevent the hazardous material from being stolen.

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