Real-life situations to overcome fear for Bomb Squad

In the initial days on the job, their hands trembled

Checking out live improvised explosive devices is not an easy task. “It needs a lot of courage, disciple, training and perfection. People’s lives are at risk,” says sub-inspector Jasbir Singh. He is posted with the bomb squad of the crime branch of Delhi Police.

When a bomb squad team gets a call about a suspicious object that “looks like a bomb”, its members rush to the spot. And till the time the object is not verified, they take it to be a live bomb.
During their early days with the squad, their hands would tremble, they would sweat and they would be scared. But gradually, after a few encounters, bomb squad members overcome fear.

“During the initial days, despite taking all precautionary measures, we used to get scared at the spot. We are also human beings. But over time, we have got used to it,” says Singh.

Under the guidance of the army and National Security Guard veterans, police officials learn to defuse bombs and operate bomb disposal robots. Head constable Tej Vir Singh says during training, they were conscious of the fact that they were dealing with dummy bombs. “But when you get into a real situation, it is a totally different thing,” he says.

Other team members say the best thing about training is that one can make a mistake and walk away. But in a real-life situation it is different. “You can’t make mistakes,” he reminds.

“You never know what is hidden or what is the bomb composition with bare eyes. One has to deal with it and there is only a limited time frame,” says Singh about real-life situations.

Most of the time highly trained sniffer dogs identify the suspicious object and the bomb disposal team then works on it with remotely operated vehicles and other equipment.

“Truly speaking, no bomb disposal squad has had to use bare hands even once to defuse bombs. If an improvised explosive device is detected, we use various gadgets to defuse or dispose it,” says inspector Kuldeep Malik, who heads the crime branch bomb disposal squad.

He says the job is not as glamorous as it is depicted. “You will only have one take in real life and there is no second chance,” says Singh.

Squad members say it their duty, and they have to perform it whether they like it or not. But being in Delhi Police bomb squad does make them feel proud at times.

They have their grievances and demand more attention from the government.

“Our lives are at risk when we are in the forefront. The lawmakers should at least give us a risk allowance, which bomb squad teams in other security agencies get. It will motivate us a lot.”

Whatever their grouses, they believe in their job. And they believe that people serving with the bomb squads of the Indian Army and National Security Guard are at par with those in any agency in the world.

Just one chance to get it right

BOMB DISPOSAL: HIGH-RISK JOB OF HANDLING EXPLOSIVES HAS NO ROOM FOR ERROR

Putting their lives on the line is their daily job. Carrying all the necessary equipment, they search jam-packed markets, parking lots, malls and vital points in the capital for explosives.

The bomb detection and disposal teams of Delhi Police remain busy throughout the day.

Being the national capital, Delhi is a prime target of terrorist and militant organisations based in and outside the country. With this threat in mind, a specialised unit, the Bomb Disposal Squad, was formed under the city police.

“Their prime work is to detect and dispose of bombs,” says special commissioner of police (crime) Dharmendra Kumar.

There are 13 bomb detection and four bomb disposal teams under Delhi Police;  and its crime branch is the nodal agency to handle the entire squad.

Apart from practising at the Police Training Institute, every year squad members are sent to the training camps of various security agencies — Central Reserve Police Force, National Security Guard (NSG) and the army — for 90 days to learn how to deal with live bombs. They are also updated with information on new types of explosives which terror groups are using to carry out attacks.

These men do not have any technical background; they are junior officers of Delhi Police.

A bomb squad team comprises assistant sub-inspectors, head constables and constables. With law enforcement agencies running public awareness programmes to counter terror threats – such as asking people to be on the lookout for suspicious objects in marketplaces – the squad's work has increased tremendously.

The men work round-the-clock in three shifts, and are always on their toes in case they get a bomb threat call. Some 400 calls are received at city's police control room every year.

Many are dismissed quickly, and many handled by other security agences. The teams under Delhi Police crime branch tackled 44 situations in 2012, and seven so far this year.

“As soon as we get a bomb call, we rush to the spot and first cordon off the entire area. Then sniffer dogs with our team detect the suspicious item. Once it is confirmed that it is explosive material, we use a remotely operated vehicle to check it with an X-ray machine,” says a member of the squad.

“If we find that it is a low-intensity bomb, we cover it with a bomb safety ring and then place a bomb blanket over it and try to blow it up in a controlled manner,” says the member.

Handling suspect object

Elaborating, the officer says there are three layers of processes before disposing of a bomb. First, the suspicious object is searched by sniffer dogs. Second, a visual search is done by the squad. And third, the squad uses specialised equipment to find out the nature of the object.

If circumstances prevent a bomb from being destroyed on the spot – if, for example, it is planted near a temple or a vital building – the police squad has to take help from the National Security Guard bomb disposal squad to shift it and dispose it of in a ‘total containment vehicle’.

The success rate of sniffer dogs in detecting bombs in Delhi is 84 per cent, through visual search it is 82 per cent, and searches using equipment have been successful 48 per cent of the time. Searches through a combination of methods have yielded results in 98 per cent of cases, the officer says.

He says there is no room for error at any stage, and their first priority is to save lives.

The bomb disposal squad under Delhi Police is a highly competitive unit, but still in a nascent stage.

It lacks adequate manpower and infrastructure, and personnel with specialised skills.

These factors make it lag far behind India’s best bomb disposal squads belonging to the army and the NSG.

Since the police bomb squad does not have technical hands like engineers, it has to depend on the NSG and army most of the time.

There are infrastructure issues. The teams do not have enough space to store equipment, and the offices are in a bad shape. Although they have the necessary equipment to detect and dispose of bombs, the teams lack the more specialised gadgets.

The sanctioned strength of a bomb disposal squad is three inspector-level officers, seven sub-inspectors, eleven head constables, seven constables, three drivers and a bomb detection team. But it is making do with two inspectors, four sub-inspectors, four head constables, four constables and two drivers.

The 13 bomb detection teams in the city are managing with minimum hands, not even half the sanctioned numbers. Due to this, an important unit of Delhi Police is comes nowhere near city police bomb squads in the US or Europe.

Senior officers say they are helpless in procuring specialised gadgets, getting the required number of technical hands and having a full-strength squad as the government has to take these decisions. Several Delhi Police proposals to strengthen the squad are pending with the government.

Was published in Deccan Herald