Date:03/10/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/10/03/stories/2002100304920100.htm

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Two die in Jammu bus explosion

By Luv Puri and Shujaat Bukhari

Firemen trying to put out a fire in a bus after a blast in it in Jammu on Wednesday. — AP

Jammu/Srinagar Oct. 2. Terrorists today exploded a bomb on a Katra-bound bus from Jammu killing two persons, while in another major incident, five Border Security Force men were killed when an Improvised Explosive Device went off in the Tral area of Pulwana district. On Tuesday, militants had killed seven BSF personnel in a landmine blast at Avantipore.

Eyewitnesses told The Hindu that the bus which started around 6.05 a.m. from the Jammu bus stand exploded just 1 k.m. away from an area which is usually thronged by morning walkers on the outskirts of the city. The passengers, mainly outsiders, were pilgrims to the Vaishno Devi shrine. Minutes after the incident, young people in the area rushed into the burning bus risking their lives and rescued the trapped passengers.

Keshav Sharma, a resident of Nepal and Ritu Kumari from Batala, Punjab, died in the explosion. Medical relief was slow in coming.

Twenty-one persons have been injured and three of them are said to be in a serious condition.

At the accident spot, a big crowd gathered and raised anti-Government slogans for its failure to provide security to the people.

The Director-General of Police told reporters in Jammu that the Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad or the Lashkar-e-Taiba were responsible for the bus blast, and called it "an act of desperation" after the successful completion of three phases of polling in the State.

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman, Amanullah Khan, condemned the incident and called it a heinous crime against the people of the State.

In the Tral area, militants laid a booby trap on the BSF party from the 120 and the 4th battalions engaged in sanitising the Tral-Wagad road. Around 8.30 a.m., the securitymen were examining the road when the militants triggered the IED through a remote control. Four BSF jawans were killed instantly while three were seriously injured. One of them died on way to hospital. The road was being sanitised for the return of the election officials from remote areas.

In Kupwara district, hundreds of people took out a procession at Haihama village protesting the killing of three National Conference workers. Residents said the three had been summoned by the local Army unit and when they came out they were allegedly gunned down by the troops. "Unko army ne mar dala,'' said a resident. However, police said that militants were behind the killings and the Army too denied the allegation.