Girl killed by unused bomb shell

A five- year- old girl was killed and two other children were critically wounded when an unused shell lying in a meadow near Tosemaedan in Budgam district exploded on Monday. The victims were fiddling with the device in Khag area of the meadow, used by the Army as a firing range since 1965, when the explosive went off and injured them critically.

The lease of the meadow to the Army ended in April but it remains under its use.

In the last nearly five decades, as many as 65 civilians, mostly children, have died in explosions caused by unused shells in the area, prompting local residents and civil society groups to launch a campaign for its return to the state so that it can be turned into a picnic spot.

A Territorial Army ( TA) jawan was killed and three other soldiers were injured when militants hiding in a village in Budgam district opened fire on security forces.

Officials here said that following information about the presence of top Lashkar- e- Tayyaba commander Qasim and three accomplices in Qaisar Mullah village of Budgam, soldiers from the Army’s 53 Rashtriya Rifles and members of the local police’s Special Operations Group rushed there to flush out the militants.

But the moment they arrived, the militants opened fire and also tossed a couple of hand grenades from a residential house, injuring four soldiers.

One of them identified, as Mushtaq Ahmed Mir of the TA, died later.

The militants managed to escape. Army and SOG reinforcements have laid siege to a vast area around Qaiser Mullah and started searches for the militants.