Jabalpur sitting on a tinderbox of unexploded Kargil bombs

OFK reportedly houses more than one lakh 84mm mortars, along with BMP2 and L70 shells, which lie buried in the premises.
Jabalpur sitting on a tinderbox of unexploded Kargil bombs
Jabalpur sitting on a tinderbox of unexploded Kargil bombs
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The city of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh is sitting on a tinderbox of several unexploded bombs from the 1999 Kargil war, with two employees of an ordnance factory getting injured in an explosion on Friday.

Many undetonated bombs lie underground at the Ordnance Factory Khamaria (OFK) premises, in a densely populated area of the city, posing grave danger to its residents.

OFK reportedly houses more than one lakh 84mm mortars, along with BMP2 and L70 shells, which lie buried in the area.

“We have raised the issue with authorities several times, but nobody is willing to take the risk. The dump at OFK has enough ammunition to support a war with any country,“ said Arun Dubey, member, joint consultation machinery (JCM) at Khamaria, under ministry of defence.

RDX supplied by Russian state arms export agency Rosoboronexport in 2003, present at the OFK premises, is another cause for concern. 

“Russian RDX worth crores had failed quality check and could not be used. There were several communications between OFK and the Russian agency on the issue. In 2014, the agency replaced the stock without taking back the inferior RDX,“ said an OFK employee.

OFK General Manager A M Thakur declined to comment saying, “I have recently joined. Let me settle down.“

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