A live grenade was found from a pile of scrap metal at the factory of GPH Ispat Limited in Choto Kumira area under Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong yesterday.
After receiving the information, Sitkaunda police along with a bomb disposal unit went to the factory and defused the grenade around 7pm, Additional Superintendent of Police (North) Mohammad Shahidullah of Chittagong said.
He said the grenade came into sight of factory workers when they were moving the scrap metals around 1:30pm.
Sub-Inspector Sontos Kumar Chakma, in-charge of Bomb Disposal Unit of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, told the Dhaka Tribune that the grenade seemed to be manufactured in an artillery factory, however, no label was found on it.
He said: “Such type of grenades are used in wars and can cause a huge blast.”
“A number was found in its body but it was unreadable and the bomb looked quite old,” he added.
GPH Ispat Limited’s Additional Managing Director Almas Shimul said they had formed a probe body headed by the factory’s acting general manager, Mahmudul Hasan Rajib, to look into the incident.
He said GPH mainly imports scrap metals and steels, as raw materials for their products, from different countries including Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden, adding that the pile in which the grenade was found was also imported.
“Currently we are investigating from which country the pile was bought and other relevant queries. We will also search all existing piles of imported scrap metals to find out if other such unusual objects exist,” Shimul said.
