Srinagar: Twenty one people, including 12 Army personnel and their family members
were killed in a sudden spurt of violence by militants who also targeted two Border
Security Force (BSF) battalion headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir.
A day after striking at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in the heart of
the city killing two jawans, militants triggered a landmine blast blowing up a
private bus carrying Army personnel and their family to Jammu killing 12 people, six
Army men, including an officer, three women, two children and the civilian driver of
the vehicle. Twenty three people were injured in the strike.
The incident occurred at Lower Munda on Jammu-Srinagar national highway, 90 km from
Srianagr at 11:15 hours. The bus hired by the Army was blown into pieces and limbs
of the victims were strewn on the highway.
The injured were airlifted by helicopters to Srinagar military hospital where the
condition of some of them was stated to be serious.
Two front ranking pro-Pakistan outfits, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-e-Jehad-e-
Islami, claimed responsibility for the blast saying it was a response to Chief
Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's assertion that militancy was
on its last legs.
However, pro-Pakistan Hizbl Mujahideen contested the claim saying it was its
activists who carried out the attack.
PTI
