Twin IED blasts ahead of Shah’s visit; 2 hurt

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, September 29

Ahead of the scheduled visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Jammu and Kashmir, twin IED blasts in two passenger buses within a time gap of eight hours rocked Udhampur district. Two persons were left injured in the blasts.

The first explosion occurred at around 10.30 pm on Wednesday inside an empty bus that was parked near a petrol pump at Domail Chowk. The other blast took place at around 6 am on Thursday morning in a bus parked in the district’s old bus stand.

Two passenger buses attacked in udhampur

• First explosion occurred at around 10.30 pm on Wednesday inside an empty bus that was parked near a petrol pump at Domail Chowk. Two persons were left injured.
• The other blast took place at around 6 am on Thursday morning in a bus parked in the district’s old bus stand. No injuries were reported in the second blast.

The explosions were so intense that they ripped apart parts of the buses. Police said the blasts occurred due to supposed IEDs that were planted inside buses. The two persons who received minor injuries in Wednesday’s blast were sent to local hospital.

Union Home Minister was earlier scheduled to visit Jammu on September 30 but his visit was postponed to October 3. Shah will review the security situation in the UT besides holding two mega rallies in Rajouri and Baramulla on October 4 and 5 respectively.

Jammu division’s Additional Director General of Police Mukesh Singh visited the blast site and said both the blasts were similar. “Initial investigation suggests that high intensity IEDs were used in both the blasts. It seems that the terror modules we had been tracking for past some time are behind these blasts,” he said.

Teams of experts including bomb disposal and dog squad of the Army, State Investigation Agency (SIA) and the forensics teams visited the site. National Investigation Agency (NIA) is expected to assist the J&K police and SIA in investigation.

Police sources said timers could have been used to trigger the IEDs.

Suleman Chouhary, DIG, Udhampur-Reasi range, and SSP Udhampur Vinod Kumar also reached the site.

Security in the neighboring Reasi district that is witnessing a heavy rush of pilgrims at the Vaishno Devi shrine due to Navratri was also strengthened. CRPF personnel were deployed in Katra.

In March this year, an IED was planted near the Udhampur court complex by a Lashker-e-Toiba terrorist from Ramban district in which a person died and 15 others were injured. He was later arrested. Udhampur houses the vital Northern Command of Army due to which the town has been on a target of the ultras since long.

Terror cases on rise in Jammu

Twin blasts in two buses in Udhampur district hours after IED like substance was recovered from a woman in Poonch has put the security and intelligence agencies in J&K in a tizzy. Terror modules have increased their activities in otherwise peaceful Jammu region for past sometime now due to which such an incident was not unexpected.

Sources say that pressure against terror groups could be a reason behind increased terror activities in Jammu division. SIA had recently carried out raids in Poonch and Rajouri. Drones used by terror groups in Pakistan have been dumping sticky bombs in border areas of Samba and Kathua. Rajouri in recent months witnessed several infiltration bids.