MUZAFFARABAD: Two persons were killed and another five wounded reportedly after a dud shell exploded near here on Tuesday, officials said.

One of the victims had reportedly brought some dud device from the composite dam site of Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project (NJHP) in Nauseri where he used to work.

On Tuesday night, while he and some of his friends were handling the device at a shop in their hometown of Hattian Dupatta, some 25 kilometres south of here, it went off, killing two of them on the spot and injuring five others.

The deceased were identified as Wasim Akram and Aqeel while the injured were identified as Afzal Cheema, Asrar Bashir, Shaikh Faisal, Khan Dilawar and Wajahat Rashid Chaudhry. They were shifted to a health facility in Muzaffarabad.

A witness told Dawn that the scene of the incident was crowded by more than a thousand people at the time of filing of this report.

Divisional Commissioner of Muzaffarabad Imtiaz Chaudhry said the person who had reportedly stolen the device from his workplace was among those who had survived.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2019