Jammu: A powerful explosion occurred at the main bus stand in the heart of Jammu on Thursday around noon, police said. A teenager was killed and 32 others were injured
Inspector General of Police (Jammu) M.K. Sinha confirmed to Indian Express that a grenade was lobbed from inside a bus and fell near a ticketing booth. He added that there were no specific alerts from intelligence agencies prior to the attack. A massive hunt has been launched to nab the grenade thrower, Sinha told reporters.
This is the third grenade attack in the bus stand area of the city since May last year.
Mohammad Sharik, 17, a resident of Hardiwar in Uttarakhand, who was among 33 people brought to the hospital, succumbed to splinter injuries in the chest, the officials said.
The condition of four more injured persons was “critical” and two of them were operated upon by the doctors to save their lives, they said.
The police had initially told reporters that a grenade had been placed under a bus. Police have cordoned off the entire area. Further details are awaited, an official said.
A parked bus of the state road transport corporation (SRTC) suffered extensive damage in the blast which caused panic among the people.
“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 ANI. The injured have been taken to the Government Medical College hospital.
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The main bus stand had also been hit by a similar blast in December 2018, but luckily, the grenade had exploded in the air and not cause much damage or any casualty as the incident occurred around midnight, officials had said.
Earlier, on May 24, two policemen and a civilian were injured in a grenade attack on the under-construction bus stand along the B.C. Road. The accused were subsequently arrested.
Jammu and Kashmir has been on the edge since the Pulwama attack on February 14 where 40 CRPF jawans were killed when a suicide bomber rammed into a convoy.
(With inputs from PTI)