Twin grenade attacks injure 23 in Kashmir

At least 23 people, including eight security personnel, were injured in separate grenade attacks in Kashmir on Monday.

Police said that 16 people, including four policemen, were injured when militants lobbed a grenade at Batapora area of south Kashmir’s Shopian district. The grenade exploded along the roadside, inflicting injuries on civilians and policemen, a police spokesperson said.

The injured include a young girl, who received critical injuries, and inspector Gulzar Ahmad, station house officer of police station Shopian.

In a separate attack, four paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and three civilians were injured when militants hurled a grenade at Tahab village in the neighbouring Pulwama district.

A police officer said that around 4:45 pm, militants lobbed a grenade towards CRPF men deployed in Tahab Chowk, leaving forces personnel and civilians injured. CRPF deputy superintendent Anuj Pathak was among those injured.

Monday's violence comes two days after CRPF vehicles were targeted in three separate grenade attacks in Srinagar on Saturday. Four CRPF personnel were among eight people injured in Saturday's attacks. Nearly a dozen grenade attacks have taken place in the Valley since Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Jaish-e-Mohammad militant outfit claimed responsibility for an IED blast in north Kashmir’s Sopore town. “Our cadres triggered the IED in which several Indian security force personnel were injured and a vehicle also got damaged at Nathipora,” a spokesman of the militant outfit was quoted as saying by local news gathering agency GNS.

Despite the unilateral Ramzan ceasefire offer by New Delhi last month, militants have continued to attack security forces in the last three weeks.