A junior commissioned officer and three soldiers were injured in an “accidental explosion” near the Line of Control in Rajouri district of Jammu on Tuesday.

Two soldiers have died and six injured in three back-to-back explosions in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir in the last 10 days. Officials have ruled out foul play but the surge in such incidents is seen as unusual. An official said the blast was caused by accidental activation of a landmine during an area-domination patrol by army personnel in the Kalal area of the Nowshera sector in Rajouri. The injured were taken to hospital, he said.

The areas near the LoC are dotted with landmines as part of measures to prevent infiltration. Heavy rain or soil erosion can displace buried mines, resulting in casualties.

Last week, two army personnel were killed in an accidental explosion near the LoC in the Uri sector in Kashmir’s Baramulla district. An army official had said the incident occurred during the routine handling and transfer of military equipment at a camp in Kamalkote, Uri. The army identified the soldiers as Chavan Vikram Balakrishna and Arjun Jadhav Rajindra, both from Maharashtra.