Guwahati, Sept.11 :     Sibsagar town observed a spontaneous bandh this morning to mourn the accidental death of five persons, including superintendent of police P.K. Lohia and local journalists Jiten Chutia and Md. Alfred Sajjad yesterday. They were killed along with an Army officer, Lt. Nazir, and a constable when a landmine recovered from Ulfa militants went off during ?an exhibition?? inside the SP?s chamber last evening. While four of them were killed on the spot, Sajjad succumbed to his injuries in hospital. Director-general of police P.V. Sumant, deputy inspector-general of police (eastern range) Umesh Kumar, transport minister Pradip Hazarika, veterinary minister Hiranya Konwar and the Upper Assam commissioner Alok Kumar today paid homage to the deceased at a condolence meeting in the SP?s office. Lohia?s body was brought by helicopter here en route to Motihari in Bihar, his native place. His wife and other family members accompanied the body. Lt. Nazir?s body is being taken to Kerala. Nearly 2,500 people took out a procession with the bodies of the two journalists in Sibsagar. The procession stopped at the local Press Club and the Natya Mandir to allow people to pay homage. A condolence meeting was also held at the Guwahati Press Club. Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah called up a section of the vernacular Press last night, expressing ?sympathy?? for the death of the two scribes. He said the mine contained a manual device and a time pencil. ?Though the manual device was disabled by the police, the time pencil?hidden tactfully in side the mine?remained intact and caused the explosion,?? Baruah claimed. However, explosives experts said Baruah was ?just trying to take credit for the death of Lohia and Lt. Nazir.?? The nature of the device can be known only after forensic tests are carried out, they said. Going by the sketchy reports pouring in, it appears that the mine was an improvised explosive device, they added. While the SP had gone on record saying, ?batteries have been removed from the mine,?? the experts pointed out that ?no mine contains batteries. ?This is a pointer to the fact that the device had been improvised,?? they said. The experts also recalled that the then Upper Assam commissioner G. Parthasarathy had been killed in his Jorhat office during the Assam agitation by one such improvised grenade. ?The plain detonator had been removed from the grenade and substituted with an electronic one fixed to batteries to ensure that the circuit would be completed whenever the officer sat down on his chair,?? the experts said. ?Though it looked like a normal grenade, it wasn?t one,?? they added. Similarly, in yesterday?s incident, the explosive looked like a mine but the original device could have been improvised. There are instances of policemen who did not have adequate knowledge of explosives fiddling around with such devices, they explained. In one instance, police personnel were found ?toying? with an anti-tank mine recovered from a garbage dump in Bongaigaon district in 1984. In another instance, a constable of the Chandmari station here had even taken the grenade home to ?show off.?? However, the experts dismissed Baruah?s claims of using a time pencil. They said no rebel outfit would want to use it in such a device since ?it also worked to their disadvantage.? Time pencils are not ?very reliable? since the timing is not accurate, they said.