Injured in Grenade Attack in J&K Mosque

10 people were reported injured in a grenade explosion in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday morning.

A police officer said that the grenade explosion took place when Namazis (Muslim worshippers) were coming out of the mosque after offering dawn prayers.

Abdul Gani Dar, a wounded 75-year-old, said a tumbler lying in the mosque complex blew up as a caretaker picked it up while people were leaving the area. The blast has taken place outside a mosque prayer hall which wounded nine people.

Besides, four persons have been killed by militants in Sopore over the past two months, who carried out several grenade attacks as well.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in the southern district of Shopian in the Himalayan region.

Another grenade was found outside the home of a member of Kashmir’s largest militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen, not far from Trenz village on Thursday. This fight has been started since 1989 by rebels for Kashmir’s independence or merger with Pakistan.

In occupied Kashmir, around a dozen worshippers were critically injured in an explosion in Shopian, this morning. On Wednesday, militants attacked an army patrol in the area, wounding a soldier.

Security agencies have sounded alert in Jammu ahead of Independence Day celebrations with militants reportedly making attempts to infiltrate besides spurt in incidents of violence particularly in the Kashmir Valley.