NSG Chief’s Faux Pas: Defused IED Turns Out to Be Bomb From WW II

The old bombshell was found by labourers excavating at the high-security DRDO Bhawan complex in New Delhi.

RC Tayal hailed the NSG bomb disposal squad as the “number one”. (Photo: Reuters)

• In a faux pas, NSG Chief RC Tayal on Tuesday claimed his men defused an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) recovered from the high-security DRDO Bhawan after “no other agency” could handle the situation, but it later turned out to be a bomb of World War II vintage.
  
  
• The old bombshell was found by labourers excavating at the high-security Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Bhawan complex in the national capital.
  
  
• Speaking to journalists at an event in the presence of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Tayal’s revelation of the NSG’s bravado created a flutter. However, according to the daily report of the Union Home Ministry, only live shells of the three recovered bombs were defused and not an IED.
  
  
• Earlier this year, the NSG bomb disposal squad lost its Commanding Officer Lt Col Niranjan EK while he was sanitising a terrorist’s booby-trapped body at the Pathankot airbase which was attacked earlier this year.
  
  
• The NSG has come under criticism over its handling of the attack after its operation to kill the terrorists stretched to 82 hours. Its claim of six terrorists being involved in the assault had also come under question as the bodies of only four perpetrators could be found.
  

(With inputs from PTI.)