A “'suspicious'” bag containing a cylindrical object with “'anti-radiation”' written on it that was recovered from the fields in the outskirts of Varanasi has left the district administration clueless. While the police and security agencies are investigating the matter, the suspicious package is now being examined by the scientists of the Mumbai-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) who have reportedly declared the package as “harmless”'.
It were the villagers of Marui that falls under The Cholapur police station in Varanasi district who spotted this bag on Wednesday. The police immediately rushed to the spot and took the bag in its possession even as terrified villages started fleeing their homes. Initially, the package was examined by Army personnel, and later National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Delhi reached Varanasi probed the matter, sources said.
While the State Government has asked the Inspector General (Varanasi zone) to monitor the entire probe, technical experts of the BARC and Intelligence Bureau were also called in. The “anti-radiation” material was then taken to the Banaras Hindu University’s nuclear physics laboratory where it is being examined by BARC scientists, though no emergency has been sounded by them, sources said.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that some persons came to the house of a former village head carrying two bags. They stayed at his house for three days and then suddenly disappeared leaving one bag behind. Later the bag was left in the fields where it was spotted by villagers, who informed the police.
