Mendhar/Jammu, March 7 Security forces safely defused a live mortar shell in a forward village near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, officials said.
A local resident spotted the mortar shell lying in a secluded area of Brari village in the Sawjian sector and alerted the Army unit and the local police post, they said.
A bomb disposal squad was rushed to the scene, and the mortar shell was defused without causing any damage, officials said.
The shell was apparently fired from across the border earlier but had remained unexploded, they said.
The recovery of such mortar shells in forward areas is a routine occurrence, as ordnance fired during ceasefire violations often remain buried or undetected for long periods before being found, officials said.
They added that such unexploded ordnance poses a serious risk to civilians living in border areas. Security forces and bomb disposal squads are frequently called in to secure the area and safely defuse or dispose of these shells to prevent any untoward incident.