The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, October 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India

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Blast in bus, 2 killed, 23 hurt
S. P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

The Katra-bound bus in flames following a powerful explosion.

A man injured in the bomb explosion is treated at a hospital in Jammu on Wednesday. — PTI photos

Jammu October 2
A girl from Batala, Ritu, and a man identified as Keshav Sharma, were killed and 23 passengers were hurt when a bomb planted by terrorists in their bus exploded near the Karan Nagar locality in the town this morning in a fresh wave of violence. The bus was on its way to Katra.

Both of them died on the spot as the explosion occurred at about 6.25 a.m. in the bus (JK02B-3527.) Terrorists had yesterday shot 11 persons in a tourist bus near here. The father of the girl, Mr Surinder Pal, and his relative, Ms Meena Pal, were seriously injured.

The injured have been admitted to the medical college and hospital. The condition of five of them was stated to be critical. Many passengers reportedly lost their limbs.

The explosive device was apparently planted in the bus at the general bus stand before it left for Katra. The explosion took place in the VIP area from where Raj Bhavan is at a short distance.

Among the seriously injured three belong to Ludhiana, two each are from Batala and Amritsar. All of them were proceeding to the Vaishno Devi shrine.

The Director-General of Police, Mr A.K. Suri, said it was the handiwork of either the Lashkar-e-Toiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammad outfits. He denied laxity on the part of the police in the incident.

He said the incident indicated a high level of desperation among the terrorists who failed to disturb the Assembly elections in which people came out in large numbers to cast their votes.

The bus was blown off due to the explosion and it caught fire. There was panic in the area and a number of people, who had come there for morning walk, carried the injured to the hospital even before the police arrived on the scene. Firemen extinguished the flames and the charred bus was carried away to clear the highway for the vehicular traffic.

The bus had left the general bus stand at 6.10 a.m. and the explosion occurred at about 6.25 a.m. just 15 minutes later. The diesel tank immediately caught fire which prevented them from escaping.

Most of the passengers had received burns, while others had splinter injuries.

There was a chaos in the hospital as a big crowd gathered there and sought immediate medical help for the injured.

Among the injured admitted to the hospital is Man Bahadur, a Nepalese Arjun Mishra and Gulab Chand, both from Banda in Uttar Pradesh, Jagat Singh and Sonu from Amritsar, Bunta Shah and Raj Kumar and Amrit from Ludhiana, Ram Lakhan, Mukesh Mishra and Prakash from Palwal in Uttar Pradesh.

Activists of the BJP and the Jammu State Morcha went around in the town asking shopkeepers to observed a bandh. However, the shops reopened after sometime.

Meanwhile, the police has launched a hunt for two suspected terrorists who were spotted by labourers near the wholesale vegetable market this morning. Both of them have reportedly fled to the Raika forest where a combing operation was on. This place is near the Qasim Nagar where terrorists had shot dead 32 persons earlier.

Meanwhile, five militants were killed in two separate encounter in Poonch district today.

According to the police, rebels belonging to the Hizb Islami, were killed in a joint operation launched by the troops and the police in Jhala village in the Mandi area and one belonging to Jash-e-Mohammad, was eliminated in the Surankot area of Poonch.

The police said one of the four rebels killed in Mandi was the district commander of the Hizb Islami and identified as Abdul Rehman resident of Surankot.

On a tip-off, the security forces cordoned the rebel hide-out at Jhala village and as the forces approached the hide-out they came under fire from the militants. The troops retaliated killing all four on the spot.

Meanwhile the Army today foiled a major infiltration bid by gunning down four Hizb-e-Islami militants after a six-hour pitched battle near the Line of Control in the Mandi area of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir, a PTI report said.

On a tip-off the troops observed the movement of a group of heavily armed infiltrators who after crossing over had penetrated deep into the Indian territory in the Mandi area, official sources said.

The Army personnel cordoned off the area and challenged them following which the militants hurled grenades and opened fire.

An encounter followed in which the four militants were killed.

AK rifles, two rocket launcers, five pistols, 13 magazines, 900 pistol rounds, eight hand grenades some explosive material were seized from the encounter site.