Kabul: Three workers were killed when an unexploded device left over from past wars went off in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, provincial police spokesman Sayed Tayeb Hamad said on Sunday.
The incident occurred in a scrap shop in Kama district when workers were busy at the site on Saturday afternoon, the spokesman said, adding that three workers died on the spot due to the blast.
Police have urged residents to inform security authorities if they see or come across any suspicious objects, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Earlier in November, a similar incident claimed one life in the Rodat district of Nangarhar province.
Post-war Afghanistan has been regarded as one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, and the unexploded ordnances, which were left over from more than four decades of wars and civil unrest, often kill or maim people, mostly children, in the country.
On December 1, provincial police spokesman Belal Uruzgani said three teenagers lost their lives after an unexploded ordnance went off in southern Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province.
The victims, aged between 13 and 18, were playing with the device in the Shirkhani region of Char Chino district when it exploded, according to the spokesman, Xinhua reported.
In separate blasts involving unexploded ordnance from previous conflicts, four people, including children, were killed and nine others injured in the provinces of southern Kandahar and northern Balkh province.
On November 26, the provincial police office in a statement said that three children lost their lives and two others were injured in the blast of an unexploded ordnance in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province.
The incident took place in the Nahri Shahi district of the province, after the children found the device and began playing with it. The device exploded, killing the three kids on the spot and injuring two others, according to the statement.
On November 14, provincial police spokesman Sediqullah Sediqi said that three children lost their lives as an unexploded device left over from the past wars exploded in western Afghanistan’s Badghis province.
The children found a toy-like device and began playing with it, but the device suddenly exploded, killing three on the spot, the official added.
A total of 137 people lost their lives, and more than 330 others sustained injuries following the blasts of unexploded ordnances, remnants of past wars, across Afghanistan in 2024, as per local media reports.
Among the deceased, 125 children, 10 men, and two women were accounted for, while the injured comprised 264 children, 53 men, and 16 women.
(IANS)
