SRINAGAR: A Class 9 student accused of throwing a grenade at a bus stand in Jammu on Thursday carried the weapon in his lunch box and concealed it under dry rice, police sources told NDTV. Two people were killed and 32 were injured in the attack.
Sources said the police in Jammu had intelligence inputs about a possible attack in the city, which helped them to track down the 15-year-old accused within an hour after the attack.
The minor from Kulgam in south Kashmir was arrested at a police checkpoint in Nagrota, 20 km from Jammu, while he was trying to return home after carrying out the attack.
The student was self-trained to throw grenades by using content available on YouTube, sources said.
The two people who died in the attack yesterday were from Uttarakhand and Anantnag in south Kashmir. A third, who was critical, died in hospital this morning.
Sources said the police received intelligence inputs on Wednesday about a possible attack at some security installation or a crowded place by the minor in Jammu, after which all police formations were alerted.
A senior police officer who interrogated the student said the accused kept the grenade in his lunch box and concealed it under dry rice. “We are investigating who transported him up to Jammu since the teen had never visited the region before,” the police officer said.
The teen came to Jammu in a private car, the police sources said, adding they are trying to track the driver. He set out from Kulgam on Wednesday and reached Jammu the next day.
Questions are being raised as to how the suspect travelled some 250 km undetected and also against traffic flow on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, which was opened only for one-way traffic on Wednesday – from Jammu to Srinagar, not Srinagar to Jammu.
Jammu Inspector General of Police MK Sinha said the Hizbul Mujahideen was behind the attack, and it was the Hizbul’s Kulgam chief, Farooq Ahmad Bhat, who tasked the teen to carry out the grenade attack. The police said the attack was aimed at creating communal polarisation in Jammu region.
