Bengaluru: They number around 25 and their lives revolve around explosives. It's not how you make them but how you defuse them that worries the elite Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) of Karnataka.
A bunch of experienced and dedicated technicians, they function under the state intelligence wing, supervised by an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police.
It was in 1991that the Anti-Sabotage Check (ASC) teams were formed in the state, but as the terror threat increased in Karnataka, the BDDS was brought in to deal with it. While there is still one ASC team in every district, the BDDS teams are stationed in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi and Hubballi-Dharwad.
The ASC teams carry out the search for explosive substances whenever there is an alert or even a hoax call , regularly check vital installations in the districts and sanitise venues visited by VVIPs. The BDDS comes into picture only when the ASC team finds explosives that need defusing.
Considering the squad's expertise its recruits are selected after several rounds of tests. Only those policemen with the right attitude and aptitude are chosen.
Usually those who are around 25 years old and have a PUC Science background are picked. They undergo a pre-test course at the Centre for Counter Terrorism (CCT), before they are sent off for technical training either by the National Security Guard or Border Security Force , Indo-Tibetan Border Police or the Tamil Nadu Commando School.
They have to be certified by one of these agencies to continue as members of the BDDS. Superintendent of Police, M. V. Ramakrishna Prasad, says the squad has state-of-the art equipment to deal with explosives and its officers are constantly updated on recent trends thanks to its Improvised Explosive Devices Model Room and Bomb Data Centre .
“We have the complete database of every bomb blast in the country and we study it. The NSG’s National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) shares information of all bomb blast cases with the states,” he explains, adding, “The role of BDDS during a terror attack or IED blast is to search for a secondary device and help investigating agencies in collection of evidence.”
A member of the squad acknowledges it is dangerous work, “We have to be very cautious while defusing an explosive as there have been instances of technicians being killed during such exercises,” he says.
