Bombile Alert

People are switching off their mobile phones after rumours of handsets exploding like bombs.

Assam has lived under the shadow of separatist violence for decades, suffering many bomb blasts that have taken hundreds of lives. The scare this time, though,  is of an entirely different kind—exploding mobile phones. 

Two weeks ago, cellphones of two women in lower Assam’s Dhubri and Goalpara districts exploded, hospitalising them. Subsequently, two more cases were reported from the outskirts of state capital Guwahati.  And the panic has led to the creation of a brand new word—‘bombile’ (bomb + mobile). 

According to local media reports, thousands of Assamese have switched off their mobile sets. Wild rumours are circulating about calls from certain numbers triggering the explosions. And of not just cheap Chinese handsets, as was originally suspected, but also high-end phones. 

Service providers say such explosions can be caused by faulty parts like the batteries within mobile sets. The other explanation, which seems rather farfetched, is that a virus is causing them. “Since it is highly unlikely that people in small towns or rural areas use mobiles to trawl the web, the possibility of such a virus entering their handsets is remote,” says a senior executive of a service provider. 

That the scare is being taken seriously is evident from Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s ordering an enquiry. Cellular service providers have also started their own probes. According to a private service provider, it is impossible for cellphones to explode because of particular incoming calls, as being rumoured. 

Local newspapers say 30 cases of exploding mobiles have been reported and 20 people have had to be given medical aid. 

The state police, though, say only ten cases have been registered, mostly from small towns and villages.