2 women among 14 hurt in Anantnag grenade attack
At least 14 people, including two women and a traffic policeman, were injured in a grenade attack in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Saturday, police said.The grenade lobbed by suspected militants in the morning exploded on the roadside near the Anantnag deputy commissioner’s office, the police said.
A police officer manning the police control room said the count of injured had risen to 14, after Jammu and Kashmir police had tweeted earlier that 10 people, including a traffic policeman and a journalist, had been injured in the militant attack.
“All the injured were stable as their injuries were minor in nature. The injured included 13 civilians, including two women and some teenagers, while a traffic policeman was also wounded,” the spokesperson said.
Deputy inspector general of police (south Kashmir) Atul Kumar Goel said the attack took place in an often-crowded area. The explosion created brief panic, forcing people to run for safety. Security forces immediately cordoned off the area and started searches to trace the attackers. “Police is on job to identify and nab the culprits,” the police tweeted.
This is the second grenade attack in Kashmir in recent days. On September 28, the Central Reserve Police Force said some of its men, on law and order duty, were targeted by a grenade in Nawa Kadal that missed the target and did not cause any damage.
There have been no major strikes by militants in Kashmir since August 5 when the central government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and put the region under a security and communication lockdown.
According to officials, suspected militants killed three civilians in the Valley in August, including two shepherds in south Kashmir’s Tral and a 60-year-old shopkeeper in Srinagar city’s Parimpora. Four persons, including a minor girl, were injured when gunmen opened fire on a fruit trader’s family in north Kashmir’s Sopore on September 6.
Although the restrictions have been eased in Kashmir, mobile and internet services in the Valley remain blocked, and a spontaneous shutdown observed by the residents has continued for the past two months.
Amid the lockdown, three gunfights have also taken place between militants and security forces in which four militants have been killed.
At least two militants were killed in an operation launched by security forces in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on September 28 that continued until October 1. Earlier, national security adviser Ajit Doval had asked security agencies to intensify anti-militancy operations following reports of an increase in infiltration attempts from across the Line of Control.
A militant was killed in a gunfight in the old town of north Kashmir’s Baramulla in August by security forces in which a policeman also died and another was injured.