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India army ammunition depot catches fire, 17 killed: reports

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MUMBAI: A fire at a massive military ammunition depot in central India on Tuesday has killed at least 17 people and left many more injured, according to media reports.

The Press Trust of India news agency said two officers were among the 17 soldiers to have died in the blaze at the depot in Pulgaon, near the city of Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra.

The NDTV network also reported that 17 people had been killed in the huge blaze which it said had broken out after an explosion at the depot in the early hours of the morning.

Thousands of families living in the area had been evacuated from nearby towns and villages.

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Tarun
May 31, 2016 10:25am
Possibility of foriegn hand.
Recommend 0
Zak
May 31, 2016 10:34am
India should outsource it's military work to Pakistan and invest in poverty alleviation. Indian nukes are not safe and in danger.
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Ahmed32
May 31, 2016 10:36am
A side effect of the arm's race.
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Kamal Pasha.
May 31, 2016 10:44am
Very sad.
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IMTIAZ ALI KHAN
May 31, 2016 10:55am
Rest in peace soldiers! May the Almighty give their families strength in this time of sadness. Amen
Recommend 0
Battleaxe
May 31, 2016 11:12am
It's summer time with temprature reaching 50 degrees and heat can be intense enough to cause unstable inflammable liquids to cook if they are in warm tightly confined places . Our security is good around such areas as SOP as this is a sensitive place but weather this time is exceptionally hot and there is severe drought where entire rivers have gone bone dry so flammable liquids are no exception.
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karachi Wally
May 31, 2016 11:11am
Simple solution lets be friends and live in peace. No need for arms and ammunition.
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Rahim proud Indian kasmiri
May 31, 2016 11:13am
The brave hearts of a brave nation. These 17 departed brave soul will inspire the coming generation of soldiers to defend its borders & peoples at any cost.How fire catches inside depot?
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Ahmad
May 31, 2016 11:17am
Sad. Our moral support from Pakistan.
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Amal
May 31, 2016 11:22am
Dawn is the best source to read about India news. Even Indian newspapers do not cover these minor events.
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Kashif
May 31, 2016 11:32am
That's a sad incident. Condolences for the aggrieved families. Sb accident or Naxals behind it?
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Engineer at NUST
May 31, 2016 11:48am
Heart goes for the dead one. Its first time ever in Indian history that arms ammunition depot catches fire. We have such incident in Pakistan in Rawalpindi, and it was the biggest tragedy in such cases so many people died than.
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A Shah
May 31, 2016 11:56am
RIP
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singh
May 31, 2016 11:56am
Sad news.. Same incident happened in April 2001 in Mamoon, Pathankot.
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Ind
May 31, 2016 12:07pm
Sad incident but Please do not start blame propaganda against others.
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Balram Sharma
May 31, 2016 12:18pm
May they rest in peace!!
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Arslan
May 31, 2016 12:29pm
Wait and see, blame will be on Pakistan in one way or another.
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Naxalite
May 31, 2016 12:31pm
What a waste of money.
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Naxalite
May 31, 2016 12:32pm
A Full-Scale Investigation is needed.
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Naxalite
May 31, 2016 12:34pm
So Far 2 Officers and 15 Soldiers have been killed according to HT. I hope Civilians are fine.
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Battleaxe
May 31, 2016 01:12pm
@Engineer at NUST truely said but summer heat all over the world starts fire specially if dry grass or very flammable material is around , sabotage may be a possibility but the heat and dry vegetation in such depot looks the most likely cause in first go in this weather ,specially this time . All sorts of thoughts cross the mind but the summer heat is on top , let's see the outcome later as fire is still on .
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M.Saeed
May 31, 2016 02:19pm
Reminds of Ojheri Camp blast!
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lafanga
May 31, 2016 02:20pm
In Pakistan every home stores weapons and ammunition and their has never been any incident of fire.
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Taimoor khan
May 31, 2016 03:08pm
Are Indian nuclear weapons safe? Safety of Indian arsenal is a question mark.
Recommend 0
Layman
May 31, 2016 03:09pm
Great news.
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Khuram Nisar
May 31, 2016 03:39pm
@Engineer at NUST Please get the facts right. India had fire in their atomic (or military ammunition depots) quite frequently. there was one couple of months ago......
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Irfan Baloch
May 31, 2016 03:46pm
great News, this ammunition would have been used to terrorise people along the border & in kashmir. Many innocent lives in Kashmir are saved due to destruction of this ammunition
Recommend 0
Battleaxe
May 31, 2016 03:56pm
@lafanga why don't you try thar desert with liquid propellent rocket fuel in 50 degrees heat of June , you will get the answer with a bang.
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AXH
May 31, 2016 04:02pm
How about instead of keep piling up the arms, invest money on the safety of soldiers.
Recommend 0
LogicBomb
May 31, 2016 04:33pm
@Amal MINOR Events? 17 died and it is minor event :)
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Desi Dimag
May 31, 2016 04:39pm
@Layman Indeed a great news, you will see the reply within 10 days.
Recommend 0
Desi Dimag
May 31, 2016 04:40pm
NSG membership on the board and it happened, got the idea?
Recommend 0
Mangoman
May 31, 2016 04:43pm
@Battleaxe That makes sense. Temperatures across the whole region is skyrocketing.
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Harmony-1©
May 31, 2016 04:54pm
@Irfan Baloch - They will simply end up buying more weapons. The solution is Kashmir resolution!
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Bitter truth
May 31, 2016 05:36pm
@IMTIAZ ALI KHAN logical comments it can be happened due to not adopt the safe practice , irregularity in safety measures or human error . Any way RIP solder . Should not seen as a point scoring opportunity.
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Battleaxe
May 31, 2016 05:55pm
@Desi Dimag not wrong to think that way , when you can't take care of airbases, ammunition dumps then what else is the gurantee for security , it's zero credibility on that front , its full failure . Having arms ammunition and all the wepons under the sun but no basic security and safety for such wepons shows total failure so your comment makes most sense , sad that lives were lost but so was safety and it will repeat again and again due to lax attitude and signhtlessnes as there too much urge for hording of ammunition without safety or security .
Recommend 0
Manish
May 31, 2016 06:29pm
@Zak Remember 1971 before comment
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Kulbhushan Yadav
May 31, 2016 06:35pm
@Taimoor khan LOL. Yes they are very safe. If they were not, India would not have been a country of 1.2 billions now would it?
Recommend 0
Taimoor khan
May 31, 2016 08:55pm
@Kulbhushan Yadav I fail to understand how your country rate of breeding is related to the safety of your nukes.
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Azi
May 31, 2016 09:16pm
You can really see a difference b/w Indians and Pakistanis in comments section. Even after this incident Pakistanis convey their sadness over the loss while Indians in similar news celebrate and rejoice. We may not be a fast growing economy but still have hearts multitudes bigger than neighbors.
Recommend 0
Kulbhushan Yadav
May 31, 2016 10:12pm
@Taimoor khan I don't expect to get intelligent replies from Pakistanis but lets say if there was an accident with a nuclear bomb, would not there be thousands of people died because of radiation???? I assume you are talking about nuclear arsenal and not power plants. But I think , Pakistani don't have much knowledge about nuclear bombs hence your illiterate leaders keep harping on nuclear arsenal. I think Hiroshima and Nagasake nuclear tragedy should be part of Pakistani curriculum from 1st standard to master courses to teach you how devastating it is.
Recommend 0
sameolstuff
May 31, 2016 10:21pm
@Battleaxe dont get it. it could apply to anything
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anony
May 31, 2016 10:21pm
Excellent.
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AKKS
May 31, 2016 10:53pm
@Kulbhushan Yadav , Wonderful reply to Zero (Taimoor) Khan!
Recommend 0
Salman
May 31, 2016 11:19pm
What an incompetency.
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KERMU
May 31, 2016 11:24pm
A big question mark on the Indians abilities to safeguard nuclear arsenals if they can,t ensure the security of an ammunition depot.
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Tahir
Jun 01, 2016 01:05am
Indian soldiers are poorly disciplined and regularly drink whilst on duty. No doubt smoking caused this accident. Pakistan should offer to train indians in maintaining arms depots in a safe manner. Its the least we can do.
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Abid
Jun 01, 2016 08:05am
India is not even capable to safely protect conventional Arms, how could world expect them to protect Nuclear Arms, India should be stripped from their Nuclear Arms and Nuclear technology. India needs more toilets makind technology then Nuclear technology
Recommend 0
arun
Jun 01, 2016 09:40am
I used to read every morning DAWN news and get lot of information which is not covered by indian media....keep it up
Recommend 0

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