Panic spread in the Peeth road area of Mhow on Saturday after a mortar shell casing was discovered in bushes near a fodder shop. The shop owner immediately alerted the police, prompting a team to arrive at the scene and cordon off the vicinity. A Bomb Disposal and Detection Squad (BDDS) was also summoned to assess the situation.
Following a technical examination, the BDDS team confirmed that the shell was an empty casing and contained no explosive material. The police seized the casing and launched an inquiry to ascertain how the military hardware ended up in a civilian locality. Authorities are currently questioning scrap vendors to trace the origin of the shell.
Suresh Kaushal, who first spotted the shell, recounted that residents were in a state of panic due to past incidents in the area. He recalled an event approximately 11 years ago when a military shell exploded near Hakimuddin Saw Mill as ragpickers attempted to extract metal from it. That incident resulted in two fatalities and multiple injuries. Kaushal noted that there are about half a dozen scrap purchase outlets in the vicinity, and similar occurrences in the past have led to injuries.
