Grenade attack in Jammu, suspect from Hizbul Mujahideen arrested

Mangalore Today News Network

Srinagar, Mar 07, 2019 : A teenager was killed and at least 30 others injured in a grenade attack in Jammu today, exactly three weeks after the terror attack in Pulwama district. 17-year-old Mohammad Sharik, a resident of Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, died due to splinter injuries in the chest. All the injured have been hospitalised and five of them are critical, doctors said, NDTV reported.

 

The person who threw the grenade has been arrested, police said, adding he is a Hizbul Mujahideen operative and had reached Jammu from Kulgam this morning. Police say they identified him using CCTV footage.

"Camera footage was examined and based on oral testimony of witnesses we were able to identify a suspect. He was wearing jeans and a red rucksack. We were on lookout for anyone matching the description. The accused was arrested and he confessed to his crime. Hizbul commander from Kulgam had tasked him with the grenade attack," said Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Manish K Sinha.

The police said the grenade was under a bus at a bus stand in the heart of the city. Most of the injured, an officer said, are bus drivers and conductors. It is unclear if there were people inside the bus.

A senior police officer, Manish Kumar Sinha, told reporters that the grenade probably rolled under a parked bus before it went off around 11.30 a.m, reported news agency IANS.

Visuals from the spot showed security personnel barricading the area as locals rushed in. "I thought it was a tyre burst. It was a big blast. The locals took the injured to the hospital in an ambulance," an eyewitness told news agency ANI.

This is the third grenade attack by terrorists in the bus stand area of the city since May last year.

Police parties along with sniffer dogs and forensic experts rushed to the spot and launched a search operation to catch the attacker, officials said.

The attack comes a week after the Indian Air Force carried out air strikes on the biggest terror camp of Jaish-e Mohammad in Pakistan’s Balakot. Jaish has taken responsibility for the February 14 attack, surprising security forces who said the group’s top order in the state has been wiped out.

With Jaish claims that the suicide bomber in Pulwama was a local terrorist, the security forces have been hunting for other members of the cell.