An Archaeological Survey of India team finding explosives and live cartridges at Red Fort during a cleaning exercise on Sunday has set the alarm bells ringing. The ammunition has been safely removed but how it landed on the premises is being investigated.
The discovery was made during a drive to clean up wells located on the Red Fort premises to re-establish water flow inside a Bawli (step well) that had dried up.
Police alerted
The matter was brought to the notice of the police on Sunday, a day after mortars, live and empty cartridges were found by the cleaners. While the police said the reason for the delay was not explained to them, ASI officials remained unavailable for comment. A senior police officer said the wells were behind the publication building under supervision of the ASI, and that labourers found a trunk inside one of the wells around 5 p.m.
“When the trunk was opened, a huge cache of explosives and ammunitions was found inside. The ASI immediately informed the CISF that looks after the security of the monument and the CISF alerted the local police about the recovery,” the officer said.
He said the entire area was cordoned off and evacuated as a precautionary measure. As is the procedure, the National Security Guard (NSG) was informed to ensure proper disposal of the explosives and ammunition. An NSG bomb disposal squad reached Red Fort on Monday and defused the explosives. “The NSG team took away all the ammunition and explosives with the help of an unmanned robotic vehicle covered with a ‘bomb blanket’ to avert an accidental blast,” said the officer.
An NSG officer later said they were inspecting the materials.
“Five mortars and 44 live rounds were recovered from the well. There were 87 fired rounds,” said the police.
It is suspected to be government ammunition as till 2004, the Army had its headquarters in Red Fort but further probe is under way. The cleaning of other wells inside the monument is on under the surveillance of the security personnel.
