JAMMU: Sevenicen persons including three children and four women, ‘were killed and more than 50 injured, 25 of them seriously, in a powerful bomb blast which rocked a busy market, here, last week.

The blast which was probably caused by the highly explosive RDX material, shook the busy market of Purani Mandi in the old Jammu city.

The explosive was suspected to have been hidden in a three-wheeler, which was completely destroyed.

A fire that broke out in the market after the blast gutted three shops.

According to eyewitnesses, limbs of the victims flew as the bomb exploded with a deafening sound. People ran for shelter as power failed.

The bodies of the victims were blown to sthithereens. The blast was so powerful that the remains of two victims were found on the rooftop of a two storied building in the market. The limbs were scattered over an area of more than 100 meters of the blast site. So far, 12 bodies have been identified, The dead, who have been identified, include Vijay Kumar, an auto rickshaw driver, Kewal, Naresh Kumar, Modi, Monica Menghi, Tinkoo, Biloo, 10 yearold Navneet Singh and seven year old Arshi Bhat, all from Jammu, Shiv Narain from Madhya Pradesh, seven year old Gaurav Gandhary from Poonch and Prem Kumar from Akhnoor.

Two seriously injured persons, Renuka Thakur and Prem, have been referred to the PGI, Chandigarh.

Shoes, chappals and personal belongings of the shoppers lay scattered all over the busy market, Window panes of shops and houses in a radius of 500 meters, were also broken.

Two scooters and another three-wheeler were also destroyed in the ensuing fire. The goods of more than 20 shops in the vicinity of the blast were blown off and lay scattered on the road.

There was a virtual stampede in the locality and panic spread in the entire Jammu city. The sound of the blast was heard up to a distance of five km.

As news of the blast spread, shopkeepers in the city downed their shutters, A large number of people gathered at the site of the blast to look for their nears and dears,

Contingents of the CRPF and J and K Police had a tough time controlling the agitated mob. Police and fire briade personnel jostled with the people as confusion and chaos reigned for more than an hour. The crowd later took out a procession in the busy Raghunath bazar, shouting antipolice slogans.

No senior police official was seen on the spot.

The injured were shifted to the Jammu Medical college by the police and the people,

Thousands of people also gathered outside the medical college. They shouted slogans and threw stones at the hospital. Several windowpanes and some hospital equipment were

The CRPF had to be deployed to control the mob. Earlier, two SHOs and five policemen were injured in the mob fury. Even the Senior Superintendent of Police, Jammu, S.M. Sahai, was manhandled.

An official spokesman confirmed the death of 14 persons and injuries 10 45, However, no senior police official was available for comment. In another incident, a top militant, Farooq Ahmed alias Keeru, who was involved in the killing of 14 Army and Border Security personnel and wounding of 10othersin Dodaareas between 1993 to 1995, was arrested, last week, ‘a police spokesman said here. Meanwhile, in Srinagar, efforts to secure the release of five foreign tourists from the AlFaran captors were on as security forces deployed in strength on the Pahalgam Amamath route killed a militant in a “chance encounter” at Goshipura near Pahalgam Amarnath route last week.

Elsewhere in the Valley, 19 people including seven militants were killed and 25 others wounded as Pakistani troops and their sponsored militants engaged security forces in armed Pal each week.

The German Federal Minister for foreign Affairs, Dr. Klaus Kinkel in a message broadcast in Urdu, through the “Voice of Germany” appealed to those responsible for the kidnapping of the tourists, to free the hostages and return them unharmed to their distressed relatives without delay. According to a report from Washington, the United States has renewed its appeal for the release of hostages in Kashmir denouncing the captors as militants and saying that the US policy ‘was not to negotiate with the militants ‘anywhere.

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 28, 1995