Lt Governor visited grieving families & assured full administration support. Two minors among 6 killed, 15 injured in Dhangri terrorist attack in Rajouri.

GNSONLINE RAJOURI
SHYAM SOOD

RAJOURI, JANUARY 02:–After Swari massacre (June 24, 1997) in which 8 Hindus were killed, Rajouri witnessed another massacre on Sunday in which 4 persons were killed and the unidentified terrorists injured 6 others in Upper Dhangri village in Rajouri tehsil.
On Monday an IED planted at the house of one of the deceased Deepak Kumar by the terrorists before leaving the massacre site exploded and 2 minor children were killed and 9 others were injured.
A senior police officer said that the IED was planted to inflict more fatal injuries either to senior SFs officers or to the mourners, had the body of Deepak been brought to home instead of keeping it at Dhangri chowk along with other three deceased.
There is a huge resentment among the people against the SFs who failed to detect the IED despite the large presence of SFs personal in the massacre Jaguar 1 & 2.
The deceased minor children have been identified as Vihan (4) s/o Sushil Kumar (died on spot) & Samiksha (16) d/o Koushal Kumar.
Today’s IED blast added more fuel to the anger of the people against the failure of the SFs to track and kill the terrorists who are operating in the area for the last about twenty days.
People alleged that it was a targeted & well-planned terror attack on Hindus and was not possible with the active involvement of local support (OGWs).
All four bodies were kept at Dhangri Chowk at about 8 pm on Sunday and a massive protest was launched against the failure of SFs.
Protesters were demanding that Lt Governor should visit them to listen to their grievances and demands.
DGP, Divisional Commissioner (Jammu); Additional DGP, Jammu along with Deputy Commissioner & SSP Rajouri also rushed to talk to the protesters, but they refused and said:” We will talk to Lt Governor only”.
In the meantime, many prominent citizens among the protesters claimed that IED was planted by the terrorists, who executed targeted killings, escaped & still untraced, with an aim to inflict more fatal causalities.
“Had we not kept the bodies at the chowk and shifted them to respected houses, there would have been huge fatal injuries in the IED blast because of presence of a large number of relatives, people there to mourn the death of Deepak” said people.
ADGP, Divisional Commissioner, DC & SSP Rajouri faced a tough time at Dhangri Chowk to pacify the protesters and reportedly once they were rescued from the spot by their bodyguards.
In the evening Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha reached Dhangri and met with the family members and other prominent citizens, political leaders, including Ravinder Raina, BJP State President; Vibodh Gupta, BJP State General Secretary, Dinesh Sharma, BJP district president.
“Had one VDC member, namely Bala (who had not surrendered his VDC gun) not opened fire on the terrorists, they would have killed many other innocent civilians” informed Ravinder Raina to Lt Governor.
Later, Lt Governor held a special meeting with the families of the deceased, prominent citizens, sarpanch of the village, DDC & BDC members. Sarpanch also handed over a memorandum of their demands to Lt Governor.
While expressing condolences to the affected families, Lt Governor said; “Union and UT Governments stand firmly with them in this hour of grief, administration is committed to looking after their needs & issues of the affected families. The perpetrators of this attack will be punished soon”.
“Security Forces have been given full freedom. Terrorists will have to pay a very heavy price for this despicable attack soon. It is our firm resolve to crush terrorists and terror ecosystem,” he added.
Lt Governor has already announced Rs10 Lakh and a government job to next of kin of each of those civilians martyred in the attack.
“Death cannot be compensated, it is an irreparable loss,” LG added. He also assured to strengthen Village Defence Committees (VDCs).
Lt Governor also assured in-depth investigation into the incident (massacre), including the involvement of local OGWs & why the IED was not detected by the SFs on Sunday (as mentioned in the memorandum).
Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha also visited the houses of the deceased persons and met with their families.
Later he chaired a high-level security review meeting at Rajouri with DGP and other top officers/officials of police CRPF and the Army.
On Sunday two terrorists struck in village Upper Dhangri in Rajouri tehsil and after verifying Adhaar Cards, opened firing on innocent civilians in four houses situated at a distance of about 50-100 meters.
Eyewitnesses said that both were wearing black clothes and it was a targeted killing.
Ten people were injured in the shootout out of which four succumbs to injuries, three were airlifted to GMC in Jammu and three are under treatment in GMC Rajouri.
After high-level security meeting DGP, Dilbag Singh said that the government has announced Rs 10 lakh reward for intelligence leading to the culprits of Dhangri incident. Identity of the informer shall be secured fully.
It is expected that both the terrorists involved in Dhangri massacre were first spotted in ward No; 6 of Muradpur Panchayat (on December 13) and then at Phalyana where they killed two innocent civilians on December 16 near the Army hospital.