Police van blast a major security lapse: DGP
‘It seems to be a planted attack, there was no scope of outsider hurling grenade inside the vehicle’
Director General of Police, K Rajendra has termed the blast inside a police vehicle which killed an under-trial prisoner and a constable as a “major security lapse”.
“It seems to us that the attack was a planted one and it certainly is a big lapse in security. There was no scope of an outsider to hurl grenade inside the vehicle. The vehicle was strong enough to bear the attack but it appears to be a planted and planned attack,” the DGP told .A Pakistani prisoner and a constable were killed in a mysterious blast that took place inside a police vehicle which was escorting the under-trial near Hygam area on Srinagar-Baramulla highway on Saturday. Two policemen were also critically injured in the incident.
Rajendra said there was no CCTV camera installed in the court complex where the under-trial was produced before the blast “but police is investigating the case”.
“We have taken a serious note of the situation and we will soon come up with proper investigation results,” he added.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, North Kashmir, Gareeb Das told that a police party from Sopore was carrying Wahid Noor Khan of Rawlakote Pakistan-administered Kashmir all the way from Srinagar Central Jail to Sopore to cause his attendance in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate.
“When the police party reached near Hygam coming back from the trail, he threatened the driver of police vehicle of dire consequences if he didn’t stop driving. The policemen escorting the handcuffed detainee tried to take hold of him and as soon as they pounced on him a grenade went off due to which he died on the spot and one of our men lost his hand and later succumbed to his injuries,” Das said.
He added nothing concrete has come up as of now as far as the police investigation is concerned. “We have lodged an FIR and a departmental inquiry has been initiated because there are so many unanswered questions which need explanation,” Das said.
Meanwhile, according to police sources, someone handed over a black jacket to Khan in the court complex which carried two grenades and the jacket was similar to the one he was wearing.