On election day in Kargil, an unexploded Pakistani shell went off Lamochan village, killing two children who were grazing goats. `At first we thought it was an IED (improvised explosive device),' an administration official says. But it soon became clear that the children had been tinkering with an unexploded shell.

Hundreds of such dud shells now dot the countryside around Kargil and Drass towns. For the last several days Army experts have been detonating or defusing them by the dozen. According to Kargil deputy commissioner Shaleen Kabla, about a dozen are detonated everyday around Baroo village -- one of the worst affected by the menace.

Another district official estimates that right now between 30 and 40 shells were being tackled everyday. The villages have been largely cleared -- or atleast the locals have identified the spots where the bombs lie -- but there may be many more shells to be defused on the slopes which faced Pakistani bombardment.

Lamochan and Muradbagh villages are the other badly-hit areas. People in Muradbagh had to leave their village for about a week, so that the Army could go about with the job of defusing unexploded bombs.

The locals have got used to the detonations. As we drove towards Kargil on Sunday, a puff of dust rose on the slope above the town, followed by a loud blast. `Apna hee hai, (it's our detonation),' a jawan travelling with us assures. In a span of five minutes, nine bombs go off near the spot where the Pakistani artillery had blasted an ammunition dump.

Apart from the detonations, Kargil and its surroundings have been quiet for many days. Officials say the last Pakistani shelling on the area was on August 27. But they never know with the Pakistanis, who seem to start shelling without any provocation.

Stretches of Srinagar-Leh highway, onwhich Kargil falls, are particularly prone to this `impulse.' At Kharboo, the Army occasionally stops civilian traffic when there is a chance of shelling from across the LoC. On another stretch a stone wall has been erected to block the view of observation posts (OPs), which direct Pakistani artillery fire.