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3 killed, 20 hurt in Jammu bomb blast

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

In the second bomb explosion in less than 24 hours in Jammu, three persons were killed and 20 others were wounded in the city centre this evening.

The powerful bomb exploded in the busy marketplace near Abhinav theatre, killing three civilians on the spot. The injured were moved to hospital where the condition of at least 10 is said to be critical.

The explosion shook the area as shoppers ran helter skelter. There was chaos all around and tension gripped the marketplace as rumours went around that another bomb was lying there. Senior police and civil officials rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The bomb disposal squad also rushed there.

Later, a group of angry people protesting against the blast began throwing stones on the police who used batons to chase away the protestors.

Tension also ran high at the hospital in Jammu where the injured were admitted.

Meanwhile, another major tragedy was averted at Vijaypur with the timely recovery of nearly 8kg of RDX.

The toll in yesterday's train blast has gone up to five. An equal number, including two children and a Bengali migrant, were wounded.

Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the site of the blast at Vijaypur this morning after arriving in a special train. She was accompanied by senior railway and state police officers.

She met some passengers at the spot. Later she inquired about the injured passengers, including the two children who have lost their parents in the explosion. Banerjee announced that the railways would adopt both children undergoing treatment in the Jammu hospital.

The blast had extensively damaged an air-conditioned coach and derailed seven other bogies of the Calcutta-bound Sealdah Express. The railway minister condemned the blast and promised increased security on the railway tracks. "We will intensify the vigil in consultation with the defence and home ministeries and the Jammu and Kashmir government," she said.

Banerjee later held detailed talks with Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah before flying back to New Delhi.

Police identified those killed as S D Chaurasia and his wife, Urmila Dixit, Gopichand and a child. Those injured have been identified as Premalata from Jammu, the two children of the Chaurasias, S C Dass, a resident of Ravindernagar, Calcutta, and Krishan Ram from Bihar.

Meanwhile, life in the Kashmir valley was paralysed today by a general strike called by the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference to commemorate the sixteenth death anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front founder Maqbool Bhat. On this day in 1984 Bhat was hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail for his role in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1971. Shops remained closed and traffic was off the roads.

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