Two scooters, car battery trigger bomb scare in GK 1 market

L V Kumar called the police at about 6.23 pm when he found the vehicles outside his house, which is adjacent to the market. At that point, the market was buzzing with visitors.

“My driver informed me about the unclaimed vehicles. I came out of the house and saw both the scooties were parked next to each other. One was Activa, bearing a Jammu and Kashmir number, the other (Suzuki Swish) had a temporary number and a battery was kept on it,” said Kumar.

“After inquiring, with the shopkeepers and a parking lot employee, I called up the police,” said Kumar. “Since Pathankot terror attack has just happened, I became a little conscious.”

Police reached the spot and cordoned off the area. They also closed the road and ordered shops nearby to down shutters. A bomb detection team, dog squad and fire tenders were rushed to the spot. Visitors were directed to move away. Police, with the help of market association, started making announcements on loudspeakers about the scooters.

A few minutes later, a young woman arrived and said it was her Activa. “She gave her name as Sonam and said she lived in Malviya Nagar,” said a police officer. Police asked her to move away from the spot as the other vehicle was being checked. Soon, a man who identified himself as Anadil, 26, came to the spot and told the police he had brought the Swish. “Anadil said he was a motor mechanic,” said a police officer. After verification, the police allowed the the woman to take her vehicle. Police seized the Swish as Anadil failed to produce papers for it, but allowed him to leave.

Shashi Bhushan Jha, a parking lot employee, shed light on one of the vehicles which created the flutter. “The woman was parking her scooty here. When I said it she will have to pay a charge, she went and parked the vehicle outside the house.” Normalcy returned after about two hours. “We have not registered a case,” said a police officer.

Nine people had been injured in the twin blasts at the market on September 13, 2008. The city had been rocked by three other blasts that day. The serial blasts killed 26 people and injured 135.