29 people were killed on 2 May 2005 when an ammunition store exploded in the village of Bajgah in Northern Afghanistan. The blast injured some 70 people.

A former local militia commander had secretly stored the ammunition near his home, highlighting the difficulty in thoroughly disarming Afghan ex-combatants after decades of war.

Afghanistan's New Beginning Program (ANBP) has called on all commanders and local militia leaders to surrender their ammunition caches. "This should serve as a lesson for our brothers," said Ahmad Jan Nowzadi (ANBP media officer) "A whole village became a victim and a whole village is mourning."

ANBP is responsible for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants, and has recovered 31,000 weapons between October 2003 and May 2005.

Securely storing ammunition is a major problem; a 2005 report for Biting the Bullet records 30 explosions in ammunition stores between1998 and 2004, resulting in hundreds of deaths.