More ammunition recovered from Red Fort

More explosives and ammuntion were recovered on Tuesday from a well in Red Fort by he National Security Guards (NSG), which has now reccomended the sealing of the well to the authorities concerned.

Search of the well — in which an Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) team found a cache of ammunition on February 5 — continued on Tuesday.

Ammunition destroyed

According to Director General (NSG) Sudhir Pratap Singh, the recoveries on Tuesday conducted after scanning the well with the help of under water cameras included mortar bombs, hand grenades (two each), detonators, fuse and ammunition. This is in addition to the five mortars and 44 live rounds that were recovered earlier.

“We have destroyed all the receovered articles after removing them,” said Mr. Singh. A police officer added that the NSG team had took away all of the ammunition and explosives with the help of an unmanned robotic vehicle covered with a ‘bomb blanket’ to avert an accidental blast.

Mr. Singh said that there could still be some arms and explosives present inside the well but the search was affected because of the shallow level of water and a lot of mud and leaves that had accumalated.

Water hindering probe

“The water, too, has become toxic and is not suitable for use. The water is hazy and it makes it difficult for the cameras to scan the insides of the well. We have requested the concerned authorities to consider sealing the well once it's cleaned,” said Mr. Singh.

Asked if all the wells inside the Red Fort premises would now be scanned with under water cameras as an added security measure, Mr. Singh said they were not considering undertaking such an operation at the moment.