The State police have constituted a special investigation team to probe the chance discovery of unexploded military-grade ordnance on a dried-up riverbed in Malappuram on Thursday.
Its primary task will be to trace the provenance of the five claymore-type anti-personnel mines thrown up by the Bharathapuzha river when it dried up on the stretch passing under the rail overbridge at Kuttipuram.
Inspector General of Police, Thrissur range, M.R. Ajith Kumar told The Hindu that it was too premature to link the discovery to any future terrorist act. However, the police were viewing the development seriously against the backdrop of Left extremist activity in forested areas in northern Kerala.
(The police were on edge in November last following an intelligence warning that Maoists might stage theatrical attacks against forest and law enforcement outposts on the second anniversary of the Nilambur encounter that claimed the lives of two alleged extremists).
Mr. Ajith Kumar has tasked Superintendent of Police, Malappuram, Debash Kumar Behera to trace the provenance of the ordnance. The Indian Ordnance Factory manufactured similar landmines. But those types are low in metallic content to evade mine detectors.
He said the ordnance was “live”. A National Security Guards (NSG) team inspected the mines and advised the State police anti-sabotage team on how to defuse the potent devices. The bombs were more than two decades old, Mr. Ajith Kumar said. But they seemed to have been deposited under the bridge recently.
The police were aware that such landmines were part of the inventory of arms routinely used by Maoists to target security forces in northern India.
Investigators have asked the NSG to verify whether the mines were manufactured in China, an alleged source of arms for insurgents operating in north-eastern India.
Another official privy to the ongoing probe said the mines appeared to be of Indian make. The police found them in a plastic bag and stored the weapons in a specially dug pit at their Armed Reserve Camp in Malappuram.
He said the directional mines packed a potent punch and could decimate anyone within a short radius of the blast. The bombs could be triggered remotely and, more dangerously, used as a booby trap. A senior official said the National Investigation Agency had also evinced interest in the case given its bearing on national security.
