Girl killed, brother wounded as explosive device goes off

A minor girl was killed and her younger brother critically wounded in an explosion in Budgam district of central Kashmir today, police said.
Simran Riyaz, aged nine, and her four-year-old brother Fayaz Ahmad were hit by splinters when they fiddled with an explosive device outside their house in village Lassipora in Khag area, some 40 kms from here.
The siblings were rushed to a nearby hospital where the girl succumbed to injuries, a police spokesman said.
A case had been registered and investigations were on, he said.
Police sources said preliminary investigations showed the explosive device might have been left unnoticed during practice firing by Army in Tosamaidan firing range in Budgam district.

The locals are demanding closure of the firing range after its lease ended last month.
Dozens of civilians in-and-around Tosamaidan had been killed and scores wounded in such explosions since the Army started using the meadow as a firing range in early 1960s.