Youth killed in cartridge blast at firing range

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

Tamulpur, Nov 18: A 30-year-old youth was killed when an unused cartridge of the Army exploded accidentally near Sukanjuli firing range at Darrangamela under Tamulpur police station in Baksa district along the Indo-Bhutan Border on Thursday. The slain youth has been identified as Rabi Mardi of Paharpur village in Darrangamela area.

Local people had collected unused cartridges from the Army’s Sukanjuli test-firing range on the India-Bhutan border with the intention of selling them in the local market, when one of the shells exploded, police said.

It is a practice for locals to collect unused cartridges from near the test-firing range and sell them in the local market in response to the demand for the copper contained in them.

Getting information in-charge of Darrangamela police outpost, Mun Pasoni rushed to the spot and recovered the body of Rabi and sent for postmortem to Mushalpur Civil Hospital.

Earlier also several people lost their lives in the firing range in similar incidents.