Panic in Mhow area after shell found near a shop

Mhow: Panic spread in Peeth road area of Mhow after a casing of a mortar shell was found in bushes near a fodder shop on Saturday.The shop owner informed the police, following which a police team reached there and cordoned off the area. A Bomb Disposal and Detection Squad (BDDS) was also called in. After technical examination of the shell, the BDDS team confirmed that it was an empty casing devoid of any explosive material.The police seized the casing and initiated an inquiry to determine how the military hardware ended up in a civilian locality. Authorities are questioning scrap vendors to trace the origin of the shell.Suresh Kaushal, who spotted the shell first, said that everyone living in the area was in a state of panic because of the past incidents that had happened in their area. He recalled how an military shell had exploded near Hakimuddin Saw Mill when ragpickers were trying to extract metal from it around 11 years back. The incident had resulted in death of two persons and several were injured. He also said that there are about half a dozen outlets where scrap materials of all types are purchased and a few other incidents similar to this one have occurred in the past in which people were injured.