No fear factor

Rakesh Yadav, the head of the bomb disposal squad of the Gujarat Police, dons his black bomb suit and bomb blanket, he braces himself for one of the toughest tasks — defusing bombs.

In his grey safari and black shoes, he looks like one of the security personnel. But when Rakesh Yadav, the head of the bomb disposal squad of the Gujarat Police, dons his black bomb suit and bomb blanket, he braces himself for one of the toughest tasks — defusing bombs.

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Yadav has been on his toes for the last two days. He defused two bombs at Hatkeshwar on Sunday, and was back with his sniffer dog the next day. The task was to comb all the sites where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to visit.

“When I hear there is a bomb at a location, I don't think about things like what if it explodes,” says the 37-year-old, a father of three. “My first impulse is to defuse the bomb and save people.”

Rakesh has defused 300 bombs in his 13-year career. He was hailed in 1998 when he stopped a blast at the Natraj Cinema and walked out hugging a bomb.

But on Monday, when Yadav embarked on a mission to defuse a abandoned object, it turned out to be tiffin box filled with edibles.