Police sources said that the 12-year-old had been fiddling with the bomb thinking it was a toy; 5-kg IED defused on Srinagar-Baramulla highway
An Army bomb disposal squad inspects the site after an IED was defused on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway on Saturday. Pic/PTI
A 12-year-old boy was on Saturday critically injured by an unexploded bomb that went off near the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of J&K, police sources said. "Mohammad Iqbal (12), a resident of Shahpur, found the bomb in an open field near Qasba village around 11.45 am and started fiddling with it thinking it to be a toy, causing the explosion. The boy suffered critical injuries with both his hands blown up. He was rushed to hospital and his condition is stated to be critical," a police officer said.
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"The bomb, apparently a mortar fired by Pakistan during cross-border shelling in the recent past, had remained unexploded and undetected," the officer added. Meanwhile, security forces on Saturday defused an improvised explosive device (IED), weighing approximately 5 kg, on Srinagar-Baramulla highway. An official said, "The HMT area of Srinagar was cordoned off and traffic was diverted. A bomb disposal squad rushed to the spot and defused the explosive device." Militants often trigger IED blasts to target security forces in the region. On January 6, four policemen were killed in an IED blast in Sopore township of north Kashmir.
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