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Punjab is on high alert after a suspected rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) was fired at the third floor of the highly guarded building of the state police’s Mohali-based intelligence wing headquarters on Monday evening. The Punjab Police on Tuesday, however, said it has leads and will solve the case soon.
Director general of police (DGP) VK Bhawra after a meeting with senior officials told reporters that a projectile had hit the building and the explosive used in it seems to be TNT (trinitrotoluene). No one was injured in the incident.
“There was nobody in the room when this incident occurred. The impact was on the wall,” the DGP said.
What is an RPG?
A rocket-propelled grenade or RPG is a shoulder-fired, anti-tank commonly used explosive projectile weapon, used by many armies across the world. They play a major part in contemporary warfare and are highly used among insurgent and terrorist groups.
The Soviet-era made the rocket-propelled grenade launcher fires a rocket out of a tube.
These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor and stabilised in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable, while others are single-use. RPGs, with the exception of self-contained versions, are loaded from the muzzle.
Types of RPGs
The origin of the RPG dates back to World War 1. Western military powers have developed several such weapons. But experts believe that the RPG is the most prolific one and it is used in almost every major insurgency or terror affected region across the globe.
There were Soviet weapons preceding the rocket-propelled grenade which were also designated with the “RPG” acronym (RPG-40, RPG-43 and RPG-6) but those were anti-tank hand grenades and not launchers. The projectile of RPG launchers is similarly designated PG, (PG-7, etc.), which similarly stands for “anti-tank grenade”.
According to the National Museum of the US Air Force, the RPG-7 has become a weapon of choice among terrorists and insurgents. Somali militiamen used RPG-7s to down two US Army helicopters in Mogadishu in 1993. The RPG-7 is commonly used by enemy forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, who employ them against vehicle convoys, checkpoints and helicopters.
RPG-22
Reports indicate that the Mohali attackers may have used an RPG-22, as assessed from the ammunition head. RPG-22 is a one-shot disposable Soviet anti-tank rocket launcher that propels a 72.5 mm fin-stabilised projectile that can be prepared to fire in around 10 seconds, and can penetrate 400 mm of armour, 1.2 metres of brick or 1 metre of reinforced concrete.
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