A scrap dealer was killed while three others were seriously injured in a powerful explosion in a junk shop in the Incholi area of Amhera under Ganganagar police station of Meerut.
The explosion took place while extracting copper from the army’s rocket launcher shell. Panic gripped the area and people ran helter-skelter after the loud explosion. The glasses of nearby houses were broken.
On receiving information, police, Anti-Terror Squad team, Military Intelligence and dog squad reached the spot and investigated for hours.
According to the information, Tausif alias Islamu (65) of Mirapur in Bijnor lived with his wife Akbari and was running a junk shop on Ganganagar Amhera road for about 20 years. At around 9:30 am on Wednesday, Tausif was breaking the army’s rocket launcher shell with a hammer to extract copper from it. Due to the presence of gunpowder in it, there was a massive explosion. The explosion was so powerful that the stone on which the shell was being broken was shattered to pieces. Tausif’s body parts were also blown away by the explosion.
A retired army personnel, Ramendra Singh of Shivlok Colony, who was riding a scooter and was passing in front of the scrap shop, Faimu of Maithana village of Incholi and a carpenter working in a nearby shop were also seriously injured in the blast.
On getting information about the blast, senior police officers, including Ganganagar, Incholi police station in-charge, reached the spot. The area around the shop was sealed. Forensic team, field unit, dog squad, Military Intelligence, ATS and local intelligence unit teams also reached the spot.
The entire shop was searched. Police recovered two open and two closed rocket launcher shells from the spot. While breaking the fifth shell there was an explosion. Police collected the pieces of Tausif’s body and sent them for post-mortem.
Senior Superintendent of Police Rohit Singh Sajwan said that they were trying to find out from where the shells were brought.