Hiranagar, October 1
At least 12 civilians were killed and 10 others injured when three militants attacked a Delhi-Jammu bound bus at Hiranagar Morh in Kathua district today.
According to eyewitness reports five persons died on the spot, six died in hospital and one, an ex-sarpanch, Janak Raj, was killed when the same group of militants opened fire while he was working in the fields.
The police has confirmed the death of eight persons. According to doctors the condition of five persons were serious.
Just 15 minutes before the start of polling in Kathua district three clean shaven militants, in police uniform, got down from a Matador which they had hijacked from the border area of Londi. As soon as they spotted a passenger bus coming they signalled it to stop.
A
man injured in the attack being looked after by his father at
a hospital in
Jammu on Tuesday.
— PTI photo |
Eyewitnesses said as the driver slowed down the vehicle one of the three militants stood in the middle of the road and the driver thinking it was routine police checking, stopped the bus. The militants hurled a grenade at the bus damaging the portion of the bus. This was followed by indiscriminate firing when the driver and the passengers refused to open the doors.
In the indiscriminate firing five persons, including two autorickshaw drivers, who were waiting at the bus terminal were killed. More than 12 passengers inside the bus received bullet injuries and some of them were injured with grenade splinters.
Five of the killed have been identified as Vikrant, Satish Kumar, Sanji Ram, Chamanlal and Janakraj Arya. Kuldeep
Singh
and Mohinder Singh died on way to the Jammu Medical College while Janakraj Sharma died at District Hospital, Kathua.The injured were carried to hospital in three wheelers by residents of the area who carried out rescue operations, when there were no government agencies, available on the spot.
Eyewitness accounts said the militants had hijacked a Matador and tried to force the driver to carry them to some Army camp or brigade headquarters. The driver expressed innocence and when the Matador reached Hiranagar Morh he hit a pole and fled into the fields which made the ultras to get down at Hiranagar Morh.
Police said the conductor of the bus was also killed in the firing.
The Army was called in to assist the paramilitary forces and the state police in nabbing the killers. The police claimed that one of the three militants had been killed while the eyewitness accounts said the ultras had escaped into the nearby forest belt.
The police believes that the militants had infiltrated from across the IB a day before the polling. According to police sources the main target of the three ultras was some Army camp as they had forced the Matador driver to carry them near some Army unit. When they failed to get closer to some Army camp they targeted the bus and those waiting at the bus stop.
Meanwhile, the Union Minister of State for Defence, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, condemning the ultra attack on passengers, most of them pilgrims to Vaishno Devi, said it was yet another attempt by the Pak-aided militants to disrupt the poll.
Prof Gupta praised the voters of Hiranagar and other constituencies for having ignored the scare caused by the militants by turning up at the polling stations in large numbers. He said today’s heavy polling in the border district of Kathua should be an eye opener for Pakistan.
SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday condemned militant attempts to disturb the poll process in the third phase of elections in the state.
He also expressed anguish over the killing of innocent bus passengers at Hiranagar by
militants.
