Terror strikes mosque in J&K; 6 killed

Sixty others are injured in a grenade blast inside a mosque compound at Tahab village in Pulwama district on Friday, reports Rashid Ahmad.

Four teenaged girls and two boys of 13 years and 22 years age were killed and 60 others injured in a grenade attack outside a mosque at Tahab village in southern Pulwama district on Friday.

HT Image

The grenade, local residents said, was aimed at a religious leader Abdul Rasheed Dawoodi, chief of Sawt-Ul-Awliya (Voice of Allah’s Friends), who too was injured in the attack.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the local residents said that they have captured a boy, who they say, threw the grenade and have kept him at an unknown place.

“We will not hand him over to police but will punish him ourselves”, shouted a local resident, Ghulam Rasool. The columns of police and security forces have converged on the village. A middle-rung police officer present on the scene indicated to the Hindustan Times that they might go for search operation to trace the “captured boy”. “We are waiting for the media persons to leave. If they (residents) don’t hand over the boy, we will launch search operation”, he whispered.

Dawoodi became the target of the attack near the main gate of the local Jamia Masjid at 1.15pm, when he was about to enter the mosque compound, where he was scheduled gave sermon to his followers.

“Hundreds of followers, majority of them women and young boys and girls, were accompanying the Peer Sahab (Sofi leader)”, said Mohammad Subhan Bhat, an eyewitness. “I too was on way to the mosque but was at a distance. All of a sudden a frightening blast occurred. There were shrills and shrieks all around and people were running for cover helter-skelter. Some of them had injuries with blood oozing out of their wounds”, he added.

“We rushed to the blast site where we saw several people lying in pool of blood. Some of them appeared to have died on spot but we rushed all the injured to the hospital”, he said. As the media persons were collecting the details of the incident, a hospital ambulance returned with bodies of two girls—Bisma and Saleem—and a 13-year boy Ummer Maqbool. Two more girls—Shazia and Shirazaha—and a boy Nisar Ahmad Ganai succumbed to their injuries in the hospital later. Hospital sources said that the condition of eight other persons was still critical.

The scene turned more mournful with wails of women and other residents. They raised slogans against the “grenade thrower”.

An agitated resident Ghulam Rasool said that the three persons were involved in the grenade attack. “Two of them escaped while we captured another boy”, the villager said. He said that the captured boy was a resident of Litter village. “We will not hand him over to the police. Woh hamara mujrim hai, aur hum usse khud saza dengay (he has committed crime against us. We will punish him ourselves”, he said.

A police officer present on the scene said that they do not know anything about the “captured boy”. “We will not allow the residents to take law into their own hands. If they have really captured someone, we will trace him out and would deal with him according to the law”, he said.

Hemant Kumar Lohia, deputy inspector general of police (DIG) for Anantnag and Pulwama however said that it (capturing the boy) was only a rumour. He said that the police have identified one militant Riyaz Ahmad of Litter Pulwama. He said that the militant belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen. He said that five persons were killed and 35 injured in the grenade attack.