Chasing the grenade: The Russian-Bulgarian connection to Mohali blast | EXCLUSIVE
India Today
An examination of the remains of the projectile found in Mohali throws light on the origin and journey of the Soviet-era weapon. It reveals the Russian-Bulgarian connection to the Mohali blast.
What could possibly be common between a midnight explosion in a small Russian village in 2016 and the recent mysterious explosion at the building of Punjab Police Intelligence Wing?
The answer is—a lot. A visual examination of the remains of the projectile that was found in the aftermath of the explosion at the building in Mohali throws fresh light on the origin and journey of the Soviet-era weapon that possibly made its way to India decades after it was originally manufactured.
In February 2016, about half-past-one at night, frightened villagers of a Russian village, Voeykovo, ran out of their homes after hearing sound of an explosion. According to local news reports, a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) like projectile came crashing across the windows of a house that left the tail of the weapon somehow intact. Incidentally, the remains of the weapon used in the Voeykovo explosion had similar markings as the one found at the headquarters of Punjab Police Intelligence Wing. In fact, the first few alpha-numeric characters on both weapons are exactly the same.
A picture reported in the news from Mohali shows remains of what appears to be the rear part of the projectile that has stenciled markings "7/1 TP B/a 13-86-K" over it. These alpha-numeric drawings have been attracting speculations from all quarters about the origin of the weapon that looks strikingly similar to the design of the RPG-22 “Netto”—a soviet era anti-tank weapon produced in the 1980s.
Contrary to the popular idea, the visible markings on the weapon do not necessarily belong to the manufacturing plant. Instead, in case of Mohali incident, the visible markings most likely belong to the filling plant that filled the grenade with charger. The pattern also matches with the leaked versions of Russian supplement manuals for the upgraded RPG-7.
The markings TP B/a in English do not hold a significant meaning on its own but if these letters are translated from Russian to English, they lead us to a very specific propellant used in RPG-22 “Netto”.
The English version of the Russian marking ‘TP B/a’ is ‘TR V/a’ which indicates the properties associated with the propellant associated with grenade explosives. 7/1 TR V/a represents a nitrocellulose based single powder charger traditionally used in the RPG-22. According to expert sources, 7/1 TR represents the tubular structure of a single base explosive with a burn arch of 0.7 mm. Nitrocellulose is a highly flammable compound that has been traditionally used in many conventional propellants.
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