Rajouri: Two minors were killed while nine others, including seven children and two women, Monday sustained injuries in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion that occurred in front of the house of one of the victims of Sunday’s terror attack in Dangri village of Rajouri.
The explosion, as per eye witnesses, took place at around 9:35 am this morning when all other people had gone out to be part of the protest at Dangri Chowk and only few children and two women were present in the house of Deepak Kumar, one of the deceased in yesterday’s terror firing incident.
In this explosion that occurred in the verandah of the house, eleven people were injured. They all were evacuated from the site of the incident and rushed to GMC Associated Hospital Rajouri where 4-year old Vihan Kumar Sharma was declared ‘brought dead.’
Later, 16-year-old Samiksha Sharma, who was under treatment in hospital and was being operated upon, also succumbed to her injuries.
Medical Superintendent of GMC Associated Hospital Rajouri, Dr Mehmood H Bajar told Greater Kashmir, “Eleven victims of IED explosion were brought in the hospital. However, out of them, a four-year old child was brought dead while a sixteen-year old girl succumbed to her injuries during treatment.”
The injured have been identified as Kanhiya Sharma (14), Kamlesh Devi (48), Sejal Sharma (18), Sharda Devi (38), Angel Sharma (8), Sanvi Sharma (7), Vansh Bhargav (15), Santosh Sharma (45) and Samiksha (14).
Meanwhile, a massive protest demonstration was held by the families of terror attack victims, joined by the villagers. The protest started at 4 am this morning after bodies of four victims of firing were brought to the village.
The protesters took all these bodies and kept them at Dangri Chowk blocking Rajouri-Dangri road.
They raised slogans against the police and government and alleged that the civilians’ carnage took place due to collective security failure. They demanded that the government should immediately take strong security measures and also fix responsibility for security failure.
The protest was further intensified when news of the explosion reached there. The people termed it (explosion) a “gross failure of security forces.” They alleged that no area sanitisation was done due to which this IED remained undetected and fresh loss of lives took place.
The protest lasted till evening and ended only when the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha reached at the (protest) site and met the people and listened to their issues and assured proper security measures. He said that all possible security measures would be taken.
After his visit, the protest was called off and the bodies of all six victims were shifted to Government Higher Secondary School Dangri where bodies would be kept during night. Last rites of the deceased will be performed at 10 am tomorrow.
On the other hand, more than 20 square kilometres area of Rajouri has been cordoned by security forces as heavy reinforcement of army and police has been rushed there. Intense searches are going on.
Special teams of forces have also been called in to execute the counter-insurgency operation in the area and to hunt for terrorists.
