J&K: NIA team reaches Udhampur to take over the probe in twin blasts

Pic: IANS

Jammu: A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reached Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday to take over the probe of mysterious twin blasts in which two people were injured. A blast in a bus parked at a stand in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur city on Thursday morning, the second within a few hours, sent security agencies in a tizzy as they sounded a high alert.

Two blasts occurred within a gap of eight hours in the Udhampur district at 10.30 p.m. on Wednesday and at 6 a.m. on Thursday. Two people were injured in the blast on Wednesday night that occurred in Domail Chowk of Udhampur in a bus parked near a petrol filling station. The roof and the backside of the bus were blown away by the blast that occurred around 6 am on Thursday but no one was injured, the police said.

The bus on which the second blast occurred had come from Basantgarh in Udhampur district and was on night halt at the bus stand. It was scheduled to leave for Basantgarh in the morning.

Mukesh Singh, Additional Director General of Police (Jammu) told the reporters that two back-to-back blasts occurred in Udhampur within a radius of two kilometres.

"Preliminary investigations suggest that these were IED blasts," the ADGP said, adding that the police cannot rule out the use of sticky bombs in these twin explosions.

The incidents occurred just days ahead of the visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah starting October 4. He was supposed to embark on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on September 30 and hold public meetings in Rajouri on October 1 and Baramulla on October 2. However, the visit was rescheduled.

(With agency inputs)