Panic and chaos gripped the Narwal area of Jammu City after an explosion at a fuel station on Tuesday morning. No casualty was reported in the incident.
A proxy outfit United Liberation Front (ULF), an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has claimed responsibility for the incident.
Countering the same, Jammu East sub divisional police officer, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Zaheer Abbas Jafri said, “The blast occurred on Tuesday morning at a petrol pump near Narwal Mandi around 10.50 am. According to the fuel station owner, a short circuit in the electricity board caused it.”
The DSP said a team of officials from the Indian Oil Corporation was also requisitioned to ascertain the cause of the explosion, which triggered chaos in the area as passer-bys ran for safety. The fuel station’s windows were shattered and a minor fire also broke out after the incident.
Prima facie no terror angel was suspected in the incident.
An employee from the adjacent bank said, “All of a sudden there were two blasts. We panicked fearing militant activity, but came to know that there was some short circuit or leakage in the pipes of the fuel station.”
Sharing a picture of the incident with a message on social media, the ULF wrote, “#Narwal Blast…Don’t fool the public… There is nothing like ‘mysterious’ or ‘lightning’. The stooges of occupational forces try to make it look like a normal thing, but the public knows what exactly happened. Jammu will turn into a battleground for occupational stooges. A lot of ‘mysterious’ things are going to happen now onwards. Count the numbers…#ULF.”
{{/usCountry}}Sharing a picture of the incident with a message on social media, the ULF wrote, “#Narwal Blast…Don’t fool the public… There is nothing like ‘mysterious’ or ‘lightning’. The stooges of occupational forces try to make it look like a normal thing, but the public knows what exactly happened. Jammu will turn into a battleground for occupational stooges. A lot of ‘mysterious’ things are going to happen now onwards. Count the numbers…#ULF.”
{{/usCountry}}Police sources confided to HT that it is a common modus-operandi of proxy outfits to claim responsibility for such incidents.
“Since they are proxy outfits, they do it for propaganda,” a senior police officer said.
On January 21 amid Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, twin blasts in the same Narwal area had left nine people injured. The two back-to-back blasts at 11.10 and 11.30 am respectively were suspected to be powerful sticky bombs or IEDs.
On April 20, meanwhile, at least five soldiers were killed and another injured after their army truck was ambushed at Tota Gali in Poonch district.