QURGHON TEPPA, March 12, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- A 15-year-old teenager from Sarband, Khatlon province has been seriously wounded after a shell for antitank grenade launcher has exploded in his hands, Sarband chief prosecutor Bedilkhon Odinayev told Asia-Plus on March 12.

According to him, the accident occurred on March 7, when the 15-year-old Fayzali Qurbonov tried to dismantle the grenade launcher shell in his house in the Zaghertut villages.  “The teenager sustained serious wounds after the shell exploded,” said the prosecutor, “Fayzali is currently undergoing medical treatment at the regional hospital in Qurghon Teppa.”

“We do not yet know where Fayzali found the shell, but doctors say he will be transferred to the recovery room in the near future and we will be able to talk to him,” Odinayev said.

In the meantime, the Khatlon police directorate Abdurahmon Buzmakov has denied rumors that Fayzali allegedly found the shell at the training center of the Ministry of Interior located not far from that village.  According to him, the Interior Ministry does not have any training center in that area and no exercises have been conducted there.  According to him, it cannot be ruled out the teenager found the shell in the mountains and brought it home.  “It could be unexploded shell that was left in the mountains after the civil war ended,” Buzmakov said.

It is to be noted that it is not the first such an accident in Khatlon province this year.  We will recall that a 14-year-old teenager was killed in Khatlon’s Farkhor district on February 23 after a mortar shell exploded in his hands.  According to the Interior Ministry, the teenager was pasturing cattle and inadvertently crossed over into the territory of the shooting ground of one of border units deployed in the district.  “He found an unexploded mortar shell and attempted to dismantle it,” said the source, “The shell exploded and the boy died on the spot.”

Commenting on that incident, Jonmahmad Rajabov, director of the Tajik Mine Action Center (TMAC), told Asia-Plus that they have applied to the government, noting that many shooting grounds in the country are not fenced properly that poses threat to security of the population.

According to him, 363 persons have been killed and 466 others have been wounded by unexploded ordnance (UXO) and land mine explosions in the country since 1992.  “30 percent of landmine and UXO victims are children,” the TMAC director said.