J&K: Jammu Police retrieves old mortar shell from Anant Vihar region, probe underway

Days after an old live mortar shell was recovered from Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district, another shell has now been retrieved by Jammu Police from the Apna Vihar area of Gangyal. This came after the locals, after finding a suspicious item, informed the police who rushed to the spot and seized it. As per primary inspection, it appeared to be a rusted shell. More details regarding the recovered shell are yet to be disclosed.

In the visuals pertaining to the incident accessed by Republic, the shell can be seen lying in the midst of a forest amid dry leaves and rocks. 

Notably, the development comes only a few days after an old live mortar shell was discovered earlier last week in Budgam's Tosamaidan tourist destination. According to local media reports, police informed that the live shell was found by the locals who later informed the police about it.

Following this, a bomb disposal squad was deployed to the region and the shell was successfully defused. Notably, Tosamaidan, which was the Indian Army's artillery range practice area for almost 50 years in the past, has now been abandoned and the local tourist department is presently maintaining it. 

On the other hand, the Jammu Police on Sunday also recovered a drone from Jammu's Nai Basti area. Earlier on Saturday, Alert Border Security Force (BSF) troops on Saturday fired several rounds at a drone coming from the Pakistani side. A search operation was also launched but no weapons or narcotics were dropped by the flying object. 

179 rounds of ammunition were recovered in J&K ahead of Amarnath Yatra

In a related development, the Jammu and Kashmir security forces exposed a secret hideout in J&K's Ramban district on Wednesday, May 11. This came after a police team after receiving certain inputs launched a secret operation in the Sumber area of Ramban district and further recovered ammunition and explosives during the search operation. 

One of the senior police officials, while speaking on the operation, stated that during the search operation in the Sumber area of Ramban district, they recovered 179 rounds of ammunition which included 132 rounds of AK-47, 21 rounds of 7.65 mm, and 14 rounds of 303 mm. They were also able to recover 12 rounds of Chinese pistol, two magazines, one wireless set, one binocular, two UBGL grenades, and one UBGL tube/rod. 

Image: Republic/PTI