Port Blair, June 06: The reported loss of ammunition at Ganesh Temple, Golghar happened on June 1, 2015, while it was being transported from Naval Armament Depot, Dollygunj to Haddo after sundown. Movement of ammunition is routinely undertaken and such occurrence is extremely rare. On receiving the news of the ammunition having been found from the police sources, the ammunition was claimed and taken over from the Police Station. Two actions were taken immediately. Firstly an inquiry was instituted to go into the circumstances of the incident. Secondly, a complete counting of armament held on charge of all units of ANC was conducted and was found to be correct.
A release issued by ANC said that only a few media houses have resorted to speculative reporting, also linking the above issue with the explosion at Brookshabad Garbage Dumping Yard on June 3, 2015 resulting in the most unfortunate death of two young Islanders.
“There is absolutely no link between the two reported incidents, as the unfortunate incident in Brookshabad has nothing to do with the ammunition of the Armed Forces. Intentionally publishing photographs of a very large sized ammunition is likely to mislead the Islanders and is seen as an attempt to sensationalise the issue, creating fear psychosis amongst the local population,” the release said adding that photograph of ammunition in Andaman Sheekha on 08 Jun 15 is the correct picture of the 3 cm calibre round.
“This round is a practice round without any explosive content, and is meant for practice firing from guns installed onboard naval ships. This ammunition cannot be fired by any gun carried by terrorists. However, some newspapers have referred to the ammunition as mortar and have published incorrect photograph of a Bomb which is much bigger in caliber and is not used by the Armed Forces in Andaman and Nicobar,” the release added.
The release further added that preliminary inquiry on the incident has been carried out and this report has been delayed intentionally to ensure factual correctness and accounting of all ammunition held by various units of ANC.
Leave a Reply