The anti-hijacking team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested an Indian Army jawan with two live grenades at the Srinagar airport on Monday. The grenades were supposed to be handed over to someone in Delhi, an initial interrogation revealed.
The jawan was reported to have confessed that a senior officer had given him the grenades and told him to hand them over to someone in the national capital. "Major sahib ne kaha tha (Major sir told me to do so)," the jawan said during interrogation, Hindustan Times reported.
The two grenades were found in his baggage. The jawan, who has been identified as Bhupal Mukhia, was supposed to board a chartered Air India flight for security personnel to Delhi. Mukhia — a resident of village Bhosoli, Tehsil Gaom in the Kurseong district of Darjeeling — belongs to the 17 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (JAKLI) and is posted near the Line of Control in the Uri district of the state.
The jawan is in police custody and is lodged at the Humhama police post close to the airport, sources in the J&K Police told International Business Times India. An investigation is currently underway. The J&K Police is seeing this as prevention of a possible hijacking attempt. SP Vaid, the director general of police, is currently at the airport to take stock of the situation.
Srinagar is one of the most heavily guarded airports in the country, with an elaborate security drill in place. It remains to be seen how the jawan managed to slip through the elaborate security arrangements and if the state government orders an inquiry into this serious security breach.
