M A I N   N E W S

No evidence of air-dropping in Bengal: IAF
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 4
The mystery behind the suspected droppings at a village in North Dinajpur district near the Indo-Bangladesh border where an unidentified airplane had apparently intruded into the Indian airspace deepened today with the Indian Air Force (IAF) saying that none of its aircraft was flying over the area at that time.

Although the IAF is still continuing with investigations, specialists from the Eastern Air Command have also ruled out the possibility of any air-dropping.

An Mi-17 helicopter with specialists from the Eastern Air Command landed at the village at 5.30 am for an on-the-spot inspection of the pond where something was reported to have been dropped from air and found no evidence, an IAF spokesman said here.

“Every square inch of the pond has been checked by the local police and the BSF and nothing has been found. There is no evidence on ground to suggest any air-dropping,” he said. The IAF team spoke to the local population, authorities and police of the village which is 2 km away from the Bangladesh border.

Reports that the water in the pond changed colour is absolutely baseless, the spokesman said, adding that the statement of an 11-year-old girl bathing in the pond had not been corroborated.

The IAF spokesman also said: “There was no IAF aircraft flying over the place where the incident is supposed to have taken place”. He was reacting to reports that the incident could have been a fallout of an IAF air drill that was being conducted in the area.

He, however, could not confirm whether any other aircraft was flying over the area at that time. He said investigations were still under way. The mystery plane was suspected to have dropped sack-like objects over the area near the border.

Reviving memories of the infamous Purulia arms drop, an unidentified lowflying aircraft intruded into an Indian air space shortly after noon yesterday and dropped two objects, which looked like sacks, changing the colour of the large hyacinth-covered pond at Magdomganj village.