Srinagar, Sep 15 (IANS) A teenager injured in a landmine explosion in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district succumbed to critical injuries on Monday at the Army hospital in Srinagar.

Officials said that a teenager was injured on Sunday in a landmine explosion near the fencing of the Army’s Khundroo camp in Anantnag district.

“He was immediately shifted to the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital in Anantnag town, from where he was shifted to the Army’s 92 base hospital in Srinagar. The teenager succumbed to injuries in the base hospital today. He had crossed into the fenced area of the Army’s Khundroo camp when he stepped on a landmine that exploded,” officials said.

The boy has been identified as Shahid Ahmad, son of Mohammad Yusuf of Larnoo village in Anantnag district.

The Army’s 21 field ammunition depot (FAD) is located in the Khundroo area of Anantnag district. This is one of the biggest ammunition depots in the Valley.

Accidents have occurred in this depot in the past as well. On August 11, 2007, more than 20 labourers were killed and several were injured in a fire which broke out after an accidental blast inside the depot.

On October 19, 2011, a labourer was critically injured when he stepped over a landmine near the fence of the depot while cleaning the lawn.

A labourer was killed on March 14, 2015, and two others were injured when a shell went off accidentally inside the depot.

There have been several other instances of live shells exploding around the villages surrounding the depot, resulting in fatalities.

On March 1, 2018, two minors were injured when a live shell they were fiddling with exploded in Rakhi-Brah, Ranipora in the Shangus area.

On June 7, 2015, a live shell inside the dead stock went off during trans-shipping in a load carrier in Roonipora village of Shangus, killing a labourer and injuring three others, including two women.

The Army has been regularly carrying out the exercise of defusing the leftover ammunition in the Rakhi Brah area in a field surrounded by mountains, and later, the scrap collectors collect the remains.

–IANS

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