Police personnel, along with a sniffer dog, inspect the site after a powerful explosion at a bus stand, in Jammu, Thursday, March 07, 2019.
This is the third grenade attack by terrorists on the bus stand since May last.
One person was killed and 25 were injured in an explosion carried out by terrorists in the crowded general bus stand around noon in the heart of Jammu city on Thursday.
Inspector General of Police M.K. Sinha said it was a grenade explosion. "Civilians sustained splinter injuries and were taken to hospital," he said.
This is the third grenade attack by terrorists on the bus stand since May last, viewed by security agencies as an attempt to disturb communal harmony and peace in the city.
Mr. Sinha said preliminary investigation suggested that someone lobbed a hand-grenade in the bus stand.
The scene of the blast along B.C. Road was sealed by police and a hunt has been launched to nab the culprit, Mr. Sinha, who immediately rushed to the scene, told reporters.
A state road transport corporation (SRTC) bus suffered extensive damage in the blast, which caused panic among people. “Whenever there is heightened state of alert, we strengthen checking and frisking but there is always a possibility of someone slipping through and this one seems to be a case like that,” the IGP said.
“Obviously the intention is always to disturb the communal harmony and peace,” he said and requested the people to maintain calm.
The police were collecting evidence and “we are sure to hunt him down [the attacker].”
Immediately after the explosion, people ran to safety, and later, as normality returned, evacuated the injured to hospital.
Police parties, along with sniffer dogs and forensic experts, reached the spot.
Earlier grenade attacks
On December 28-29 last, suspected terrorists carried out a grenade attack on the bus stand with the intention to target the local police station building.
A grenade attack along the B.C. Road left two policemen and a civilian injured on May 24, 2018.
“The blast [on March 7] occurred on the roadside when there was a huge rush of people. I had come to drop my wife who was going to board a bus to Punjab,” one of the injured, Kuldeep Singh of the Pragwal area of the city, said.
Mr. Singh, who is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College hospital for splinter injuries in lower parts of his body, said he felt that somebody hurled something that caused the powerful explosion.
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