A powerful blast shattered the 6-month-long lull in Srinagar this evening when militants triggered an improvised explosive device in the heart of the city on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring 17.
The device was planted on the city’s only flyover at Exhibition Crossing close to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Civil Secretariat went off at 5:55 pm, smashing the windshields of several vehicles. Window panes of the offices of four TV news channels were also damaged. The blast occurred just in front of the state high court complex and at some distance from the civil secretariat.
The blast ripped off a concrete portion of the flyover which fell on some cars parked beneath it, killing one Abdul Hamid Bhat of Chadura area, police said adding 17 people, including a traffic policeman, were injured.
Police said militants had planted an improvised explosive device in a vacant CRPF bunker on the flyover.
The incident occurred on the day chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was in the city. The government headquarters are presently in Jammu and will reopen here in May. The explosion occurred after a six-month lull in Srinagar. Police said the explosion may be aimed at decreasing the momentum for the assembly elections, scheduled in September, for which campaigning has already begun.
After the blast, a caller identifying himself as a spokesperson of Al Madina, believed to be a shadow outfit of Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack. Minutes later, another outfit Hizbul Mujahideen made similar claims.
