Jammu blast: Class 9 student came via Srinagar-Jammu highway carrying explosives

It was a class 9 student who carried out the grenade attack at Jammu bus stand on March 7, it has emerged. The student, who hailed rom South Kashmir's Kulgam district, arrived in Jammu on the morning of Thursday and hurled the grenade at as bus, killing 2 persons and injuring nearly 30.

The J&K police cracked the case within hours of the bomb blast with the help of CCTV footage that helped them trace the suspect who was trying to flee the city. He was caught by sub-divisional officer of Nagrota police in the outskirts of Jammu, following inputs from Jammu police.

MK Sinha, Inspector General Police, Jammu, said that the suspect was tasked by militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen to carry out the bomb attack in Jammu, which was the third such incident since May last year.

First visuals show the aftermath of the Jammu grenade blast at the Bus Stand. Injured people which includes old aged being helped by locals. At least 1-2 remain critical in GMC Jammu out of the 18 injured as of now. Praying for safety of one and all. pic.twitter.com/oiHZ3Iq1yK

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) March 7, 2019

The police added that the attacker was instructed by the Hizbul Mujahideen divisional commander Farooq Ahmad Bhat to carry out the explosion.

The accused travelled with the grenade on high security Jammu-Srinagar Highway?

Police investigations have further revealed that the accused had travelled from Srinagar to Jammu by road two days before the blast. The attack by Hizbul Mujahideen comes days after the datstardly attack on CRPF personnel convoy in Pulwama, South Kashmir, which killed 40 soldiers.

Both the incidents have raised questions on security lapses in J&K, especially after persistent threats from militant outfits such as Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad. The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, which remained shut for most part of the winter, was re-opened recently. The highway is one of the tightly monitored areas in the state with various army  and J&K police security check points along the 270 kiolmetres mountainous route.

The highway was closed after the Pulwama terror attack, which happened at Lethpora, which falls on this route.  After the Pulwama attack, the union home ministry issued a new set of guidelines for traffic movement on the Srinagar-Jammu Ntaional Highway especially pertaining to the movement of security personnel's convoys. All the civillian traffic has been blocked while the security personnels' vehicles are moving on the highway to prevent Pulwama-like incidents.

More than 90,000 civillian vehicles cross the National Highway every hour and there are at least four fleets of security personnel vehicles that ply on the same strectch. Police sources said that maintaining a tight vigil along this road with such a huge rush of traffic is highly challenging. However, the fact that a 15-year-old boy carried an explosive while doing a 12-hour road journey has put J&K police and other intelligence agencies on the backfoot.