Gelatin sticks found in Jhabua district of MP

Jhabua: A fortnight after a deadly explosion killed 89 persons at Petlawad town, a huge cache of gelatin sticks which are commonly used for breaking off the rock for mining was on Sunday seized from a forest near here.

"A patrolling team of forest department led by deputy forest ranger Hari Om Charpota found two dumped boxes containing 395 gelatin sticks near a drain in Nahharpura jungles," Thandla Sub Divisional Officer of Police N S Rawat said.

The boxes, weighing 25 kg each, bear name of a company, Rawat said, adding a case was registered against unidentified persons under the Explosive Substance Act, and the further probe was on.

Police sources said somebody involved in stocking the explosives used for mining might have dumped the boxes, as a drive to recover unlawfully stored explosives is underway.

A day after the Petlawad tragedy, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan faced an angry mob of locals during his visit. The people blamed the rampant unlawful storage of explosives for the tragedy.

To mollify them, Chouhan had announced that the government will conduct a drive to rid the state, especially Jhabua district, of unlawfully stored mining explosives.