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Blast in Jalandhar bus kills 7 passengers

Neena Chaudhary in Chandigarh

In a gruesome act of terrorism, seven passengers were killed and 16 others injured when a powerful bomb exploded in a privately owned bus near Jalandhar city in Punjab on Monday evening.

According to the Punjab police control room in Chandigarh and sources in Jalandhar, the ill-fated bus was travelling from Pathankot to Jalandhar on National Highway No. 1A when the blast occurred. Pritam Bus Service was operating the bus.

Witnesses said that the incident occurred at about 1800 hours (IST). They heard two consecutive blasts. Immediately after the blast, the driver lost control of the bus, which had caught fire by then.

Reporters of local newspapers said that the blast occurred when the bus was about 100 meters away from the common bus stand of Ballan and Sarmastpur villages under Kartarpur police station in Jalandhar district.

Other witnesses said that people who had gathered in a local gurudwara, about a kilometre away, rushed to the spot on hearing the blast. They immediately rushed 10 of the seriously injured to the local civil hospital, much before authorities arrived.

The bus was completely gutted. The belongings of the passengers could not be salvaged, making identification of the dead difficult. Witnesses said that most of the dead and the injured bore burn injuries.

They said that the spot presented a gory site, with pieces of human flesh and blood strewn all around. Authorities were attempting to contact the relatives of the injured when reports last came in.

The Punjab police have sounded a statewide alert and senior police officers had rushed to the blast site to supervise the investigation into the blast. The area had been cordoned off to allow forensic experts to gather evidence.

Officials said it was too early to identify the people responsible for the act. None of the pro-Khalistan groups has claimed responsibility so far. Police suspected the involvement of Kashmiri militants. They said that the explosive device was either planted (in the rear of the bus) or it went off accidentally, while a courier was transporting it.

EARLIER REPORT
Blast in Jalandhar bus

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