J-K ammo depot fire toll up to 15

Forty-three bomb disposal teams are at work; another 60-70 teams are being airlifted to the region.

Lt Gen Panag ruled out sabotage, as claimed by militant outfits Hizbul Mujahideen and Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen.

He said the Army had lost 10 per cent of the ammunition stocked at the depot, called 21 Field Ammunition Depot, which supplies units deployed along the Line of Control.

At the relief camps in Shangus, Utrasoo, Anantnag, and Achabal, people are devastated. Some say their homes and possessions are completely destroyed.

“Ninety-five per cent of the houses in my village have suffered damage,” says Mohammad Yousuf of Puhloo, a village close to the depot. “Roofs, windows have been blown away, walls are cracked. I saw carcasses on the paths.”

He says he sneaked to the village this morning by an unguarded route. “I didn’t venture in, though. There were unexploded shells on the ground.”

Relatives of firefighters and civilians employed at the depot staged protests against the Army and the state government. They alleged that the number of casualties was higher than given out by the authorities.

“The army says they are missing; we believe they are dead,” says Harjeet Singh of Chhattisinghpora, a relative of one of the firemen believed missing.

Pointing to the helicopters overhead, he says, “The Army is doing everything for its own personnel, and nothing for our men.”

Twelve of the protesters were injured in police action.