A blast sent thick black smoke into the air, shaking the area of Bolpur of West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Wednesday. Indian Army personnel had just defused a World War II-era mortar shell, recovered from Ajay river.

A month ago, residents of Laudah village under the Singi Panchayat in Bolpur police station limits had spotted a large bomb-like object lodged in a sandbank of the river. They brought it to the riverbank. After being informed, the Bolpur police reached the spot, and confirmed that it was an old shell believed to date back to the Second World War.

The area was cordoned off and guarded for weeks until Army assistance arrived.

It took time for bomb squad representatives to figure out how to defuse the shell. On Wednesday morning, a bomb disposal team from the Indian Army’s P

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