'No plan to shift army depot in Kashmir'

Khandroo (South Kashmir), Aug 18: The Army today said there was no immediate plan to shift the arms and ammunition depots from the present locations in the Kashmir valley.

Talking to reporters after distributing ex-gratia relief to the 21 Field Ordnance Depot victims, Major General S N Honda said the area for ammunition depots was being selected after taking into considerations several aspects.

These would be set up in operational areas only, he said.

About the fire and subsequent explosions in the depot at Khandroo in the south Kashmir district of Anantnag on August 11, he said the Army had already ordered a court of inquiry into this matter.

A number of mainstream political parties have demanded shifting of ammunition depots from the civilian areas.

The inquiry committee has already started its investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire and subsequent blasts in the depot which left 18 people, including a Major the 15 firefighters, civilian labourers dead and 16 people injured. One woman had died and 30 others were wounded in subsequent blast in the nearby villages. Three people, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), are still missing.

Major General Honda said about 400 to 500 personnel were working here and other nearby affected villages in the clearance operation to defuse the unexploded shells and other bombs.

''We have separated these men in five groups to detect and defuse the unexploded shells,'' he said.

Earlier, he distributed Rs 1.5 lakhs each to the next of the kin of 11 firefighters from the valley who lost their lives while fighting the inferno. Family members of three of the four seriously injured were paid Rs one lakh each.

The civilians who lost their lives were paid Rs 1 lakh and critically wounded Rs 50,000 each by the defence authorities. On August 16 evening, four people were injured when an unexploded shell went off in village Nowgam. With this a total of 30 people have been injured in the blasts after the devastating fire followed by thousands of explosions that destroyed 40 per cent of the depot barracks.

Thousands of villagers migrated from about a dozen affected villages after the incident.

Reports said that villagers were visiting their homes in the affected villages, despite warning by Army and civil authorities to wait till all the unexploded shells were defused by the Bomb Disposal Squads (BDS) airlifted from different commands across the border.

A senior Army officer recently said it would take two to six months to complete the operation and declare safe the areas concerned for farming and other activities. The casualties and structural damage have been significantly less than initially assessed, he said. The authorities have already announced a court of inquiry into the incident in which ammunition worth Rs billions has been destroyed as the depot was feeding arms and ammunition to all depots in different parts of the valley, besides Kargil and Leh.

Thousands of people from affected villages are living in different relief camps set up by the district authorities and the Jammu and Kashmir Police or with their relatives. More than a dozen marriage ceremonies in these villages, scheduled to be held during August and September, have been postponed.

Hundreds of houses, mosques and a temple have been damaged in the fire and subsequent blasts in the affected villages.

UNI