03/11/2025
Residents of Nongpoh town were gripped by fear for several hours on Monday evening after a suspicious bag was found abandoned by unidentified individuals, prompting police to call in the Bomb Squad to investigate and ensure public safety.
According to reports, police received information about an unclaimed bag left by the roadside along National Highway 06, opposite the State Bank of India, at around 5 PM. Officers from Nongpoh Police Station immediately rushed to the spot to assess the situation.
It is reported that, due to uncertainty about the bag’s contents and fears that it might contain explosives, the police promptly informed the Bomb Squad in Shillong to carry out a detailed inspection.
After about two hours, Bomb Squad personnel arrived at the scene with a trained K9 sniffer dog to examine the suspicious bag. Following a careful inspection, the team opened the bag and discovered that it only contained clothes and other personal items, bringing relief to anxious residents. Police are now working to identify the owner of the abandoned bag.
It may be recalled that public anxiety in Nongpoh has remained high since a recent incident in which a similar bag was discovered near a rural bank and the residence of a former MLA in the Umsning Constituency, where an IED weighing over 4 kilograms was found. In light of that incident, the police took no chances this time and handled the situation with extreme caution before declaring the area safe.
