10 injured in blast in Kashmir

10 civilians were injured on Thursday in a grenade blast near a mosque while police detected another explosive planted outside the residence of a Hizbul Mujahideen militant in Shopian district of Kashmir.

In a new modus operandi, militants had planted a grenade outside a mosque in a trendy locality of Shopian, 52 km from here, in the wee hours, the police said.

“The grenade was kept on the roadside in a steel glass after removing its pin. Someone touched it, triggering the blast,” a police official said.

He said 10 civilians who had come out of the mosque after morning prayers around 6 AM were injured in the explosion.

While four of the injured were referred to a hospital here for treatment, six others were admitted to a hospital in Shopian, he said, adding all the injured were in stable condition.

About an hour later, the police detected another hand grenade kept in a steel glass, with its pin removed, near the house of an active Hizbul Mujahideen militant Wasim Malla at Pehlipora in Shopian.

“A bomb disposal squad was rushed to the spot and the grenade was destroyed without causing any damage,” he added.