Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, March 26

Three persons, two of them Army men, were wounded in a grenade attack by militants in Bijbehara town of Anantnag district, 40 km south of Srinagar, today.The soldiers are being treated at the Army’s 92-Base Hospital in the Badamibagh cantonment of Srinagar, while the civilian has been admitted to the SK Institute of Medical Sciences in the Soura area of the summer capital.As per police reports, the attack was carried out at about 2:20 pm on Saturday afternoon near the local police station along the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.“The Army men on duty were targeted in this area, which generally remains very busy,” a senior police official from the area said. He said all the three injured had splinter injuries. The injured were immediately taken to the nearby Sub-District Hospital, Bijbehara, from where they were shifted to the respective hospitals.“The civilian is stable, I am told. One of the Army men, however, was in a critical condition,” Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Naheed, told The Tribune.The Army men, surprised by the attack, opened fire as per the eyewitnesses. The militants, however, fled the scene and did not retaliate.The injured civilian has been identified as Farooq Ahmad of Dupathyar village in the Bijbehara area. The identity of the Army men, however, remains to be ascertained as an Army spokesperson refrained from giving out any details. He also did not comment on the condition of the injured.Meanwhile, militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack. The outfit spokesperson Burhan-ud-din talked to a local news agency to claim the responsibility for the attack.