Hizb mean machine kills 9 in car blast

Eyewitnesses said 12 people were killed in the blast, which occurred at 12.30 pm near a branch of the State Bank of India on the posh Residency Road, about 15 minutes after a grenade attack by militants at the same spot.

A horde of security-personnel and journalists, who had reached the spot after hearing the news of the grenade-attack, were the main casualties in the blast during peak hour.

Pradip Kumar Bhatia, Delhi-based photographer of The Hindustan Times, who was injured in the blast later died in the hospital, an official spokesman said.

At least 30 injured people were taken to SMHS hospital and eight others shifted to Soura medical institute. The area was immediately cordoned off by police and security forces.

A Lashkar spokesman telephoned a local news agency, CNS, and claimed that an ambassador car of the J&K Bank, forcibly taken by its activists, was used in the blast. However, in Islamabad Hizbul Mujahideen spokesman Saleem Hashmi claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The injured journalists were Mohammad Amin War (Tribune),Fayaz Kabuli (Reuters), Bilal Bhat (ANI), Habibullah Naqash (Asian Age), I Tariq (Srinagar News) and Irfan Ahmed (Zee TV).

Police Superintendent Pankaj Saxena and SHO Altaf Hussain were among those injured in the blast.

The policemen killed were identified as sub-Inspector Hammad Yaqoob and constables Imtiyaz Ahmad, Nissar Ahmad, Jan Mohammad, Devinder Singh, Nissar Ahmad, Bodh Raj and Mohammad Ashraf.

Bodies of some victims were torn to pieces due to the impact of the blast which also damaged the boundary wall of the bank, besides damaging over a dozen shops and a number of buildings. A number of vehicles, including those belonging to the security forces, parked near the site were also damaged.

The site presented a gory scene with mutilated bodies, mangled metal and broken tree branches strewn all around.

Eyewitnesses said they saw one body without an arm, while another had a disfigured face.

Army experts said PENT explosive was believed to be used in triggering the explosion.

Earlier in Jammu, police foiled an ISI plot to trigger blasts on Independence Day with the arrest of a militant, Bharat Kumar. IGP R V Raju said Kumar, trained in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Kabul, was nabbed on a tipoff and a big cache of explosives including two IEDs — one programmed for 1000 hrs on August 15 and the other fitted in a four kg steel container suspected to be meant for crowded places or colonies of police or security forces — was recovered from him.

He could have received some more consignments before August 15, had he not been arrested, the IGP said.

Kumar had visited New Delhi early this month, he said.

Police rounded up six of his associates in Jammu city and their involvement in militancy, directly or indirectly, was being interrogated by a team of experts from all agencies, the IGP added.

An infiltration bid was also foiled in Noushera when security forces gunned down a top militant on Wednesday night. His accomplices, however, escaped.

Another infiltration bid was foiled by BSF men along the International Border in R S Pura, the sources said, adding that though the militants managed to flee back to Pakistan, they left behind an improvised explosive device fitted with 10 kg RDX, electric detonators, and some arms and ammunitions.

Militants also threw grenades at the house of counter-insurgent Abdul Rehman Padroo in at Tangaloo-Duroo in Anantnag district last night killing his mother on the spot and injuring five other family members. One of the injured, a girl, succumbed to her injuries. Padroo, however, was not present in the house at the time of the attack, an official spokesman said.