SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- An Indian army trooper was wounded Sunday after accidentally stepping over a landmine planted blindly close to the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir, officials said.
The blast took place in Nangi Tikri of Krishna Gati sector in frontier Poonch district, about 185 km southwest of Srinagar city, summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "A trooper accidentally stepped over a landmine today, which went off resulting in wounding him," Lt Col Manish Mehta, an Indian army spokesman in Jammu said. "The wounded trooper was immediately evacuated to military hospital and is stated to be out of danger."
According to Mehta, the mine was planted by the Indian army and had drifted from its position.
"It was our own mine that had drifted from the position," Mehta said.
During the past more than two decades of ongoing armed insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir, many people were killed or left crippled after inadvertently fiddling with the explosives or stepping upon landmines planted blindly in the region particularly along the LoC.
The LoC is the de facto border that divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani-controlled parts.
A guerilla war is going on between militants and Indian troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989. The gunfight between the two takes place intermittently.
