1 dead 33 injured in grenade explosion at Jammu, culprit arrested within hours

March 7: A grenade hurled by a minor at a bus stand in Jammu on Thursday afternoon killed a teen and injured at least 33 others. The grenade reportedly went off under a bus. Preliminary investigation suggested that the suspect lobbed the grenade in the bus stand area around noon, causing the explosion. This was the third grenade attack by terrorists in Jammu bus stand since May last year, viewed by security agencies as an attempt to disturb communal harmony and peace in the city.

The teen who died was 17 years old – Mohammad Sharik, a resident of Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, had sustained fatal splinter injuries in the chest. All the injured have been hospitalised and five of them are critical, doctors said.

The attacker, who has been arrested, is a class 9th student, said to be 15 or 16 years old. Police say he was indoctrinated by the Hizbul Mujahideen and tasked to carry out the strike. The attacker, sources say, is a student of a private school in south Kashmir’s Kulgam, who reached Jammu this morning. The police said they identified him using the CCTV footage from the area and the help of eyewitnesses.

The teen had mingled with a group of Kashmiris waiting at the bus stand before he lobbed the grenade under a parked bus around 11.30 am. After the blast, the teen tried to flee to Kashmir. He was caught by the personnel at a police check post at Nagrota, 20 km from Jammu.