Four or five calls, including hoax calls, almost daily over the help line number 100 being received by the police control room in Haridwar, where the Ardh Kumbh mela is now on, have left the police officers worried. Two persons have been arrested recently since the Ardh Kumbh Mela started on January 14.
Police were on the edge again on Friday after they were informed that a sack containing explosive materials had been found lying at Shantikunj gate number-2. Bomb disposal squad and dog squad rushed to the spot. They found the sack, but there was no explosive material found in it.
Police force seems divided over whether the people should give warning calls indiscriminately over the helpline number. A police officer said that it is good that the people are using the helpline number with alacrity whenever they stumble upon any suspicious object.
But another cop said that most of the calls received in the control room through 100 are in the category of hoax calls. “No one should trigger panic this way. The helpline number should be used with discrimination,” he added.
Recently, two- Sunil Saini, native of Bijnor and Ankit, resident of Kanchal, Haridwar - were arrested for making hoax calls. They were booked under appropriate sections of IPC in the police station concerned in Ardh Kumbha Mela area. Sunil Saini had made the hoax call to the control room as he wanted to land his father-in-law with whom he has been having troubled relation in a soup. Ankit had phoned the police by way of playing pranks.
After the police received the call, saying that a sack had been found lying suspiciously at Shantikunj gate number-2, the area was sealed off and vehicle checking drive was launched at important crossings within the Mela area. Pilgrims were strictly frisked while the bomb disposal squad personnel checked the sack and found no explosive material in it.
Police said what had found out in the sack were parts of a broken cylinder. “We are wondering whether someone had left it there intentionally to trigger panic,” one of the cops posted there said.