Anantnag:
Three people have died and six others have been injured in a blast in a tourist bus in Bijbehara in South Kashmir's Anantnag district.
All the three who died were women. The condition of one of the injured is said to be critical. The bus was carrying tourists from Mumbai and was on its way to Pahalgam in South Kashmir.
There are, however, conflicting reports on the nature of the blast and what may have triggered it. Initially the police said that it was grenade attack, but then they issued a statement insisting that it was an explosion caused after a cylinder exploded in the bus.
"Today (Saturday), a cylinder exploded in a vehicle, bearing registration number JK02AP/0676 and which was on way from Srinagar to Pahalgam, at Zuripora (Anantnag), falling under the jurisdiction of police station Bijbehara, in which six passengers were injured, of whom two died," a police statement said.
And while there are conflicting versions about the nature of the blast, the bus is a testimony to the plight of the tourists who were traveling in it. The leftover biscuit packets, sandals and other belongings of tourists clearly defines the horror.
The doctors at the government hospital in Bijbehara, who attended to the injured, said that all the victims have received splinter injuries and there were no burn injuries that would have suggested a gas cylinder explosion. In fact, the splinters had also pierced through the door and the roof of the vehicle.
"There were multiple injuries on all parts of the bodies and two patients were brought dead to us... They were mostly splinter injuries caused by high-intensity explosion," said Dr GM Mehta.
The last time an explosion took place in a tourist bus was on July 29, 2007 at Shalimar in Srinagar. Six tourists were killed in that explosion.