Jammu and Kashmir: Army jawan arrested with two grenades at Srinagar airport
The soldier was part of the 17 J&K rifles and based out of Uri.
An Army jawan was stopped at Srinagar airport on Monday after two grenades were found in his baggage. He was travelling to Delhi and meant to hand them over to someone there, officials said, according to Hindustan Times.
The soldier was identified as Bhupal Mukhia, The Times of India reported. He is being interrogated at a police station in Humama. A police officer told the English daily that the anti-hijacking squad arrested Mukhia, who is a resident of Darjeeling. He belongs to the 17 J&K rifles and had been working in Uri. However, there are no further details on the incident and the Army has not put out an official statement yet.
“We are investigating. We have sent our team to the police station. The grenade the jawan was carrying is Grenade 90. It is mainly used for exercises. The jawan’s explanation is that he was carrying it to kill fish,” CNN-News18 quoted an unidentified Army official as saying. Senior Superintendent of Police Manzoor Ahmad Dalal told India Today that the ammunition was used for training purposes.
Officials said the jawan has claimed that junior level officers had a role to play in his unauthorised possession of the grenades. He said he was a courier, ANI reported.
Mukhia’s arrest comes a day after a police officer was killed and 10 others injured in a grenade attack at Nowhatta near Srinagar. The incident took place near Nowhatta police station when a group of policemen and Central Reserve Police Force jawans were returning from duty. The Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen group of militants had claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chenani-Nashri tunnel in the state.
On Twitter, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the incident “tells a wider story of the problem of unaccounted weapons and ammunition”.