Three women die in tourist bus blast in Anantnag in J&K

Three women were killed and six others injured, two of them seriously, in a blast in a tourist bus in Anantnag district of South Kashmir on Saturday.

"As of now, it seems like a cylinder blast. A blast of similar nature had occured in Baltal as well. But investigation is on and we are looking at other possible angles as well," said IG Kashmir Range, SM Sahai. Initial reports had suggested that the explosion was caused by a grenade attack.

“The bus was carrying tourists from Mumbai, all passengers were women and it was on its way to Pahalgam”, said police.

The injured have been shifted to hospitals in Srinagar. "The bus driver told us that the blast occured inside the vehicle," said a police official.

While police maintain that a gas cylinder had exploded, there were conflicting reports on the issue. An eyewitness injured in the blast said that the tourist group was "not carrying gas cylinders".

"I don't know what happened but we were not carrying any gas cylinders," said Nitta Jidwa, one of the injured admitted in Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences.

Even the area people were not sure about the nature of the blast. "The bus windowpanes are intact. There are no smoke marks on the bus. Wonder how can this be a cylinder blast," said a local resident who didn't want to be named.

Police have meanwhile started forensic investigation.