QUETTA, Nov 7: A shepherd was injured when a device exploded in Lejah area of Kharan district of Balochistan, while around four dozen unexploded US-made devices were found in the mountain area, some 340 km south of here on Wednesday, official sources confirmed.

“We have defused all these devices through firing and taken around 50 empty shells into custody for further investigation,” a senior official of the district administration said while confirming the incident.

“Word ‘US Navy’ is visible on all devices we brought from the Mlang mountain range,” sources further said adding that it confirmed that these devices were dropped from the US warplanes crossing over Kharan and other areas of the province including provincial capital Quetta.

A cruise missile had also landed in Nag area of Kharan when United States fired missiles on Afghanistan to destroy the hide out of Osama Bin Landen on August 20, 1998.

Local Shepherd Mohammad Essa, a resident of Lejah informed the local authorities about the presence of the bomb like devices in the hilly area on Tuesday evening when he was brought to civil hospital Kharan for treatment of injuries that he received when one the device exploded when he touched it.

“I saw many bombs like things in the Mlang mountain range which were dropped by a warplane,” he informed the local authorities.

“I tried to cut of them hitting stone, which exploded and injured me,” he told a doctor in Kharan hospital.

Hospital sources said that Mohammad Essa has received minor injuries at his face, legs and hands. One of his eyes was also affected a little bit due to splinters, medical officer of the civil hospital said while contacted on telephone.

Sources said a team of the local authorities headed by Tehsildar Kharan visited the area on Wednesday and found over 30 bombs lying in the mountain area about 120-km east of Kharan township. The team destroyed some of the bombs through firing.

Other bombs were taken into custody by the authorities and brought to Kharan late evening for further investigations.

The nazim of Union Council Sarawan Nazir Ahmed also confirmed the drooping of cluster bombs in the area and he brought the shells of these bombs. Further investigation was in progress in this connection.