Grenade Attacks Kill Two In Kashmir, Several Wounded
Nov 26, 2019 | Pratirodh Bureau
Indian policemen stand guard at the site of a grenade explosion in Srinagar on November 26, 2019
Suspected militants threw grenades in Kashmir on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding eight, police said, the latest outbreak of violence in the disputed Himalayan region months after New Delhi revoked its autonomy and statehood.
Two people – including a government official and a member of a village council – were killed and four wounded in one of the blasts in southern Kashmir’s Anantnag district, where they were holding a meeting to address public grievances.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Oct. 31 turned the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two federally-controlled territories, arguing that special provisions for the region had hindered its development and fuelled separatism.
But the move has been opposed in areas of Jammu and Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim in full but rule in parts.
“The Back to Village programme had got over when a grenade was hurled by militants,” Altaf Khan, a police officer in Anantnag, told Reuters.
Earlier on Tuesday, suspected militants threw a grenade in the Saderbal area of Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, wounding four people, according to a police official who declined to be named.
Late on Monday, security forces cornered two militants from the Hizbul Mujahideen group in southern Kashmir’s Pulwama district, killing one after a brief firefight.
The other was shot dead in the early hours of Tuesday, an Indian army official said.
“We had received reports that terrorists were threatening the local population and we launched an operation,” Major General Anindya Sengupta told reporters on Tuesday.