Two accused who threw grenade at Amira Kadal arrested: J-K Police

SRINAGAR — Police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested two accused who threw a grenade at Amira Kadal in Srinagar city.

In a statement issued to GNS, the police said that on March 6, information was received about a grenade attack that took place near Amira Kadal bridge at about 4:20 pm. “On receipt of this information, a case under FIR number 18/2022 under Section 307 of IPC, Sections 7/27 of Indian Arms Act, Sections 16, 23 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) was registered at Shaheed Gunj Police Station.”

It was henceforth found out that a hand grenade was thrown towards a security vehicle and this blast caused injuries to a total of 38 persons including 36 civilians and two police personnel namely Reyaz Ahmed (SgCT) and Jan Mohd (SPO), they said.

Later, two of the injured among the civilians succumbed to their injuries namely Mohd Aslam Makhdoomi (79) son of Mohd Amin, resident of Makhdoom Sahab, Nowhatta and Rafia Nazir (18) daughter of Nazir Ah Tinda, resident of Hazratbal, according to the police.

In light of this, police said, Section 302 of IPC and Sections 3, 4 of Explosive Substances Act were added to this case.

Due to the heinous nature of the case and due to the panic it created among the general public, SSP Srinagar Rakesh Balwal (IPS) formed an SIT headed by Lakshay Sharma (IPS), SP South and consisting of Shabir Ahmed (SDPO Kothibagh), Fayaz Hussain (SDPO Shaheed Gunj), Faizan Ali (DySP/PC), Anzar Shah (DySP – Probationer), Gowhar Hussain (SHO Shaheed Gunj) and Taseer Ahmed (Inspector/PC) as members.

As per the police, the SIT employed modern means of investigation and based the investigation on the technical evidence like minute frame by frame analysis of the CCTV footages of the scene of the crime, footages of CCTVs in the whole of Srinagar city, cell tower dump analysis, IP dump analysis, a recreation of the crime scene and by examination of some eyewitnesses.

“Based on these, the SIT was able to identify two accused who came on a two-wheeler without number-plate to commit this crime and fled on the same vehicle after committing the militant act. During the intense analysis of the CCTV trail in Srinagar city, the route adopted by both accused was located back to one neighbourhood in Khanyar area,” they said.

“The first accused namely Mohd Bariq son of Mohd Shafi Magrey, resident of Koolipora, Khanyar was arrested from Khanyar, Srinagar. His initial examination led to the arrest of the second accused namely Fazil Nabi Sofi son of Ghulam Nabi Sofi, resident of Koolipora, Khanyar. The two-wheeler used in this grenade attack was also seized by the SIT,” they said.

The statement further stated that it further came out that these two accused had committed the militant act on the directions of active militants in Kashmir valley.

The plan was to attack the parked security vehicle but due to grenade throwing from a moving two-wheeler, the target was missed and the grenade exploded in an adjacent crowded area where many roadside vendors and buyers were busy in routine works, the statement said.

“Further, it was also found that this particular area was chosen due to the omnipresent chaos and turbulent traffic in this stretch of area due to unorganised vendors and stalls on the road. There have been two other recent grenade attacks in this area – on August 10, 2021, and on January 25, 2022,” police said, adding that further investigation is underway.

As per the police statement, “This act of grenade throwing created terror, panic and anguish among the masses in the whole of Srinagar city. By way of this press release, Srinagar Police requests all commercial establishments/shops to install CCTV cameras inside and outside of their shops/commercial establishments as per advisory issued by DC Srinagar.”

“This will act as a strong deterrence to all the anti-social elements, who think of committing such atrocious crimes,” concludes the statement.