A 12 member team from the Indian Army has started work on diffusing and destroying about 555 live missiles accidentally transported from Iran as scrap 14 years ago. On Friday, the team extracted and diffused 220 live missiles. The threat from the missiles had been discovered in 2004 following an explosion that had resulted in the death of one worker and caused injuries to more. The live missiles were buried at Patrampur in Jaspur area of Udham Singh Nagar district.
The Indian Army 201 counter explosive device unit from Barabanki has been working on diffusing the live missiles in Jaspur since Thursday. On Friday, the team extracted 220 of the buried missiles and detonated them safely on the Fika riverbed.
From the security point of view, the army cordoned off one kilometre area.The superintendent of police Jagdish Chandra said that the task will continue in the coming days.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Indian Army team had started work on digging up the missiles with the help of mechanical excavator on Thursday.
The missiles had arrived as scrap in the SG Steel factory in Kashipur about 14 years ago. Accidental explosion of a missile in 2004 which had led to the death of one worker and injuries to others had resulted in the discovery of the live munition. After the accidental explosion, the local administration had then brought the missiles from the factory and buried them near the Patrampur post in Jaspur.
The local authorities had exchanged official communication with the officials concerned on many occasions to facilitate secure disposal of the live munitions.
Following this, the Indian Army took up the task of destroying the missiles. The team’s captain Vikas Malik said that the live munitions will be destroyed on the Fika river bank and buried. The task will take about one week to complete, he added.