One eye, many ear-witnesses & a lot of weeds: story of Pond Placid

After almost 24 hours of investigation:

• ‘‘We are more or less sure that there is nothing in the water,’’ said Superintendent of Police A K Sharma. ‘‘Yesterday itself, local divers searched the pond for four hours. We wouldn’t have done this had we not been sure that there’s been no chemical reaction in the water. But because so many people have said that something fell into it, we are draining out the water.’’

• The claim yesterday—confirmed by police officials—that the pond had changed colour has turned out to be incorrect. A visit showed that neither is there any smell nor a change in the colour.

• What’s clear, however, is that there is a virtual consensus in the village that at least one plane did fly over the area and that there was a ‘‘loud explosion.’’ This was confirmed even by personnel at a nearby BSF camp and policemen at the Daspara outpost.

• One plausible explanation, say police officials, is that it was a plane from the nearby Indian Air Force base in Bagdogra. When contacced, Squadron Leader Atul Arora, assistant provost master, who visited the area today declined to comment on his findings but added that since the village falls within the official air traffic corridor between Kishanganj and Bagdogra, ‘‘it is quite natural that aircraft will pass through this stretch.’’

• Said SP A K Sharma: ‘‘The police contacted the Bagdogra airbase but they neither confirmed not denied allegations of air space intrusions. Nor did they specify if airbase planes were involved in some kind of exercises.’’

• The pond has become a prime tourist attraction and its unwitting Guide No 1 is a 12-year-old girl Mahmoda Khatun who is said to have been bathing in the pond when ‘‘it happened.’’ Incidentally, every other villager who reports on the incident attributes it to somebody else.

But Khatun is the star witness—and she is paying the price. ‘‘The ordeal she’s been facing is unthinkable’’, says her mother, adding that they had to hide her in the afternoon to protect her from the flood of questions: at 9 pm, the BSF came; local police officers came several times at night, waking her up every time. And this morning came the men from the Intelligence, IAF, district administration—and the media.

Khatun says she heard the first sound of a plane at about 11 am, but the aircraft disappeared after making several rounds. At 12-30 pm, when she was in the pond, she heard a plane approaching.

‘‘The land was vibrating, there were ripples in the pond and it seemed as if my eardrum would burst. It was flying low, suddenly I saw an orange oject in the air and heard a loud blast. By the time it neared the ground it had turned white; then, there was a big splash in the pond,’’ she said.

She remembers little about the aircraft except for ‘‘bluish patches’’ on its body.