By all account the Waripat Firing Range tragedy in which five children were killed when a live shell exploded on March 24 (one child succumbed to injuries on March 25) has thrown open certain disturbing questions that cannot be simply swept under the carpet. Apart from the tragedy that snuffed out the lives of five innocent children, he incident is a grim reminder that no one can be too careful when it comes to public safety. The incident has also cast a dark cloud over the wisdom of locating firing range close to human habitation.
The five children were killed when they were reportedly collecting empty shells at the firing range when a live grenade exploded on their faces killing four of them on the spot while another succumbed to his injuries at the hospital a day later. The deaths of five children are shocking enough but what has added an even more disturbing manifestation over the tragedy in the question of public safety. How did the live shell happen to be there at the firing range is the question that the Government and the authority of the security force should start asking now?
Two possibilities may be studied to get the bottom of the whole incident. For one, the hand grenade may have been planted there to target the security personnel who use the firing range for their practice and the other, and this seems more plausible the grenade may have been dropped by unsuspecting security personnel after the firing practice. We are more inclined to believe that the latter is the case for no one in his right mind will try to attack a full strength security force by panting a hand grenade and in all probability the grenade may have been dropped by a man in uniform. Either way we feel the government should not sleep over the matter but order a full fledged inquiry into the circumstances that led to the incident and come out with an answer.
The Waripat tragedy also raises the question of whether firing range should be kept absolutely off limit to the general public. If we are not mistaken similar ‘accidents’ have occurred at different firing range before and perhaps it would help if local clubs and voluntary organizations are roped in to make such firing ranges off limits. Whatever is the case, the Government and the authority of the armed forces have to acknowledge that it is their responsibility to ensure that public security is not compromised at any cost.
What happened at Waripat is a sad reflection on the cover all concern shown for the safety and security of the general population. On March 24 it was five children tomorrow it may be any number of children and women, if attention is not paid to accord top priority to public safety. Perhaps the Government and the security personnel may give a serious thought over the question of whether locating firing range close to human habitation is desirable or not.
Expectedly, the people of Waiton, from where all the victims hailed, are furious over the incident and have demanded a number of compensations from the Government. Whether Chief Minister O Ibobi gives in to the demands of the infuriated people or not remains to be seen, but what cannot be written off is the feeling that the Waripat incident has nothing but a man created disaster for which five innocent children had to lose their precious lives. There is no justification for turning a firing range into a land mine zone. This is the tragedy of it all.
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