Yogesh Sagotra
Jammu, Mar 9: One person was killed while 14 others sustained injuries in a low-intensify Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast at vegetable market Salathia Chowk in Udhampur district on Wednesday.
The incident happened in the afternoon when vendors were selling vegetables and fruit at Salathia Chowk near Tehsil Office Udhampur. “All were busy shopping and all of a sudden a big bang was heard. I saw people lying flat on the ground. After a few minutes, locals and police removed all the injured to hospital. One injured was seriously injured,” an eye-witness said.
Talking to reporters at the site of the incident Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Jammu region, Mukesh Singh said that preliminary investigations reveal that it was a low-intensity IED. “One person was killed while 14 others sustained injuries, who all are stable,” he said. He said that they have invited ballistic experts to find out the nature of the blast and investigations are in a full-swing.
The injured were shifted to district hospital Udhampur where one Jugal Kumar, 29, a resident of Dhandal-Udhampur. The injured were identified as Heera Lal (25), Soni Kumar (46), Sahil Kumar (19), Anil Kumar (19), Ashok Kumar (47), Rakesh Kumar (40), Amit Kumar (20), Bodh Raj (60), Om Parkash (60), Anita (27), Kaku Ram (50), Raju Ram (37), Kuldeep Kumar (46), Varun (8) and Sushma Devi (37).
Two of the injured are reportedly having serious injuries and being referred to Government Medical College Jammu, an official said.
Soon after the explosion took place, senior officers of police, CRPF and army rushed to the spot and the area of incident was cordoned for examination of evidence.
“Sniffer dogs, bomb squad were also called on spot for necessary operation, area sanitization and examination,” the officials said. “Samples collected from the blast site have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).”
Official sources on the other hand said that both National Investigation Agency (NIA) and State Investigation Agency (SIA) are assisting local police in the investigation of the case. “Teams of both NIA and SIA visited the incident site and took a detailed review and examined evidence collection procedure,” said official sources.
They added that police is trying hard to find any detail of person who might have kept any substance there which could have exploded.
