Blast kills schoolboy in J-K

Mohsin Sarwar had promised his family that he’d return from school early. The Class X student came home on a stretcher, his uniform hid...

int(3)

Mohsin Sarwar had promised his family that he’d return from school early. The Class X student came home on a stretcher, his uniform hidden under a blood-stained white shroud.

Mohsin (15) was killed and five classmates injured in an explosion in their school compound that also serves as a temporary Army camp. The Army says the schoolboy was carrying a grenade in his bag. Villagers hold the Army responsible as soldiers man the school’s only entrance.

‘‘Our classes ended at 1 pm and we were rushing out. Suddenly there was a big bang and we fell down,’’ said Firdous Ahmad Bhat (16), a Class X student who was hit by splinters in his legs and abdomen. ‘‘I saw Mohsin lying in the mud. The Armymen started firing and we ran inside.’’ He said a group of angry troops came inside the building and beat them. ‘‘They (Armymen) hit us and accused us of carrying a grenade,’’ he said.

Officers of 14 Rashtriya Rifles, who rushed to the school after the blast, too believed a schoolboy was carrying a grenade. The police claimed to have recovered the lever of the grenade too. But nobody could explain how the boy sneaked a grenade into the school. ‘‘We don’t search the schoolboys,’’ said Lt Col A K Verma. ‘‘The militants are using innocent schoolchildren and giving them deadly explosives.’’