Dud mortar shells found

Published August 6, 2007

RAWALPINDI, Aug 5: About 240 mortar shells and rockets - some filled with explosive material - believed to be the left-over of Ojri Camp disaster were found scattered on the bank of Nullah Leh passing through the bustling Mohanpura area on Sunday, security sources said.

Before the police along with sniffer dogs reached the scene and started a search after cordoning off the entire area, some young scrap vendors were seen collecting the heavy iron pieces. Later, some of the shells taken away by residents of the surrounding areas were retrieved by the police.

The people of the locality were stunned after seeing a large number of police and military officials in the streets of Mohanpura.

It was traffic police sub-inspector Noman who spotted some scrap vendors taking away the rockets and mortar shells. He called his senior officers who immediately reached the scene and seized the ammunitions.

City Police Officer Syed Morvat Ali Shah, who was present on the scene, told Dawn that an unidentified scrape dealer had thrown all the used ammunitions into the nullah in the wee hours of Sunday and disappeared.

He said the dealer might have tried to sell the shells but disposed them of after failing to find a customer.

“Nothing is dangerous and these are just empty shells. Definitely, these are the left-over of the Ojri Camp incident,” Mr Shah said.

Later, a bomb disposal team from the Civil Defence department also reached the scene and termed all the shells and rockets dud.

The Ganjmandi police have registered a report of the incident and are investigation.