Police on Tuesday announced ₹10 lakh reward for any information about the attackers involved in the killing of six civilians, including a four-year-old child, at Dhangri in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)’s Rajouri this week even as a federal National Investigation Agency (NIA) team visited the scene of the back-to-back attacks.
Deepak Kumar, 23, Satish Kumar, 45, Pritam Pal, 56, and Shiv Pal, 32, were killed when unidentified terrorists fired on them on Sunday. Vihan Sharma, 4 and Samiksha Sharma, 16, were killed a day later when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near the scene of the firing.
Hundreds of people, including J&K Police chief Dilbag Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravinder Raina, attended the cremations of the six.
Residents accused police of lapses and said the terrorists planted the IED on Sunday but they missed it during the search operation. Dheeraj Sharma, the Dhangri village head, called this a serious security lapse. “Minority community people do not feel secure. The administration should take tough measures,” he said.
Another resident questioned why the three houses attacked on Sunday were not searched and sanitised. “Had the houses been sanitised properly, the IED could have been detected.”
{{/usCountry}}Another resident questioned why the three houses attacked on Sunday were not searched and sanitised. “Had the houses been sanitised properly, the IED could have been detected.”
{{/usCountry}}Police said the IED was planted at the entrance of Pritam Pal’s house in a gunny bag. “It appears the terrorists, who fired at the three houses on Sunday evening also planted the IED before fleeing. The IED had a timer and was planted at the entrance of the house that was attacked first on Sunday evening,” a police officer said, requesting anonymity.
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha visited Dhangri on Monday. “This is a very painful and unfortunate incident. It is the Centre’s and J&K government’s resolve to wipe out terrorism. Though deaths cannot be compensated but I assure every possible help to the families of those killed. We have given full freedom to the security forces and I want to assure the people the perpetrators of this attack will be punished soon.”
He announced ₹10 lakh compensation and jobs for the kin of those killed and ₹1 lakh each to the 15 people, who were injured in the attacks.