Jammu, Oct 10 (IANS) The Army said on Saturday that it has detected and safely destroyed five landmines along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.
The Army added that five landmines were detected and safely destroyed by it along the LoC in Poonch district.
“While two landmines were detected by an Army patrol party near the border fence in Basoni top area today morning, three others had been found in the same area the previous day,” the Army officials said.
“The explosives were subsequently destroyed through controlled explosions by the Bomb Disposal Squad of the Army without causing any damage,” officials added.
The forward areas along the LoC are dotted with landmines as part of an anti-infiltration obstacle system.
However, heavy rainfall can sometimes wash away the mines, causing them to surface in areas where they may pose a potential risk.
Landmines are those that move away from their original mapped position due to weather and other reasons are technically called ‘drift landmines’.
“Drift mines” generally refers to two dangerous phenomena: naval mines that break loose and float freely across open waters, or terrestrial landmines that physically shift or “drift” from their original buried positions due to natural disasters like heavy rains, floods, or landslides.
Both present severe humanitarian, economic, and environmental threats due to their completely unpredictable and untraceable nature.
Drift landmine explosions cause devastating trauma, including severe soft-tissue damage, skeletal fractures, and traumatic amputations.
Globally, nearly four out of 10 landmine victims die from their injuries, largely because these drifting hazards strike in remote areas far from emergency medical care.
Because drift mines migrate away from marked, known minefields, they catch populations completely off-guard.
Civilians make up more than 80 per cent of all casualties, with children disproportionately affected due to their size and vulnerability to blast waves.
–IANS
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