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Two injured in explosion at army's ammunition depot

Last Updated 16 January 2018, 12:21 IST

Two porters were injured in an accidental explosion at one of the biggest ammunition depot of army in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Tuesday.

Reports said two labourers were injured in the explosion at army's 21 Field Ammunition Depot (FAD) at Khundroo, Anantnag, 70 kms from here. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.

Pertinently, several people were killed while over 50 were injured when the same ammunition depot, one of the biggest in Kashmir, caught fire in August 2007. Thousands of civilian had to be evacuated then and it took army several weeks to clear the area of unexploded shells.

The economy of the area took a serious hit since the ammunition depot went ablaze as people are reluctant to visit fields and orchards, fearing unexploded shells might blast. The residents says some of the shells which had landed deep into the soil in 2007 incident get up with soil erosion. They are scattered in paddy fields and orchards, they complain.

In 2016, army had declared that all its ammunition depots across the state were safe, after J&K Legislative Assembly Speaker asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to conduct safety audit of all ordnance depots.

The direction was passed after two army officers and 15 Defence Security Corps jawans were killed in a fire incident at the central ammunition depot in Pulgaon, near Nagpur in Maharashtra on 31 May 2016.  

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(Published 16 January 2018, 11:36 IST)

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