Jammu, June 26
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the militant who engineered the bomb blast at the Jammu railway station last night came in Army uniform on the scooter in which the explosive, fitted with a remote control device, was kept.

According to investigators, no civilian vehicle is allowed to be parked in front of the Movement Control Officer, who regulates incoming and outgoing Army convoys. The militant may have come in Army uniform leaving no scope for suspicion after he parked his scooter within the restricted area close to the reservation counter.

In the blast, 40 persons, most of them Vaishno Devi pilgrims and three Army jawans, were injured. Several passengers were injured when the blast ripped through the waiting hall smashing windowpanes.

Of the 40 injured, nine continue to be in hospitals while the rest have been discharged after first-aid. The police said of the nine undergoing treatment, three jawans were in Army Hospital and six civilians were in Government Medical College.

A red alert has been sounded and additional companies of security forces have been deployed in and around the railway station. The arduous task of frisking passengers and searching all incoming cars, scooters and buses was started yesterday night itself.

The state Intelligence Department had, a week ago, sent a message to the Jammu police that the railway station and the bus stands, besides other crowded places, were to be targeted by militants in the winter capital to create scare in advance of the ensuing annual Amarnath pilgrimage. The police had taken several measures but these were mostly confined to the railway platform and the rail track between Jammu and Samba. Besides X-ray machines, closed circuit TV has been installed at the entrance to the platform for checking the luggage and for monitoring the movement of any suspicious person. More than 4,000 ex-servicemen have been appointed to guard the Jammu-Samba rail track which has been declared as a bomb-prone area.

The government reports said the main aim of creating scare and of disrupting the ensuing Amarnath yatra was to cast a shadow on the proposed Indo-Pak summit. In fact, Pakistan agencies have been upset over the increasing rush of pilgrims to the Amarnath cave during the past seven years. Their worry emanates from reports that the Indian authorities cite the heavy rush of yatris as a sign of normalcy and people’s yearning for peace.

Police, BSF and Army experts have already carried out a road-opening exercise from Pahalgam and on the Baltal route. A senior BSF officer said, “The sanitising of the route from Baltal to the cave has been completed and BSF pickets have been set up at various focal points.” Of the 40 injured, more than 20 are from Uttar Pradesh and others are from West Bengal, Delhi and some are locals.