Antitank shell found at Sylhet house
Staff Correspondent, Sylhet
Local police yesterday recovered a live explosive device that experts say is an antitank shell from the same house where a severe blast Sunday morning killed a day-labourer and his minor nephew and injured seven others including women and children. Showing the 'device' to newsmen at the office of the superintendent of police yesterday afternoon, Deputy Inspector General of Police AKM Mahfuzul Haque said they found it wrapped with plastic sheet lying on a veranda, several feet off the place of Sunday's blast. "We don't know exactly what it is, but it appears to be a sort of dangerous explosive," the DIG said pointing at the 13-inch-long bottle-shaped metallic device of a 75-milimetre diameter and weighing about 10 kilograms. A retired army artillery officer, Brigadier General Jubayer, however told The Daily Star the device is an antitank shell called Blind and is fired by recoilless rifle. Police officials said, after the inhabitants of the house in their confessional statements said there were two bomb-like things in possession of Anwar, who died in the Sunday's explosion apparently caused by careless handling, police launched a vigorous search in and around the house. They found the shell at around 1:50pm in presence of the local union parishad chairman and neighbours, DIG Haque added. Officials of Directorate General of Field Intelligence (DGFI), National Security Intelligence (NSI) and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) also examined the antitank shell now being kept at Kotwali Police Station. Declining to comment on the origin or nature of the device, Haque just said, "We have to wait for the report of army explosives experts to know the exact name and nature of it." SP Mostafa Kamal however said the device is one of the pair collected by the boys and sold as scrap metal to day-labourer Anwar. Retired Brigadier Jubayer said Blinds are used for military training, adding if any shell or explosive remains unexploded during the firing practice, army regulation requires it to be collected and exploded or detonated immediately afterwards to keep the firing range safe. An official of an intelligence agency, who examined the device at the police station, requesting unanimity, confirmed that it indeed is an antitank shell, adding though a Blind, it is still dangerous.
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