Tribune News Service
Srinagar, October 28
A day ahead of the European Union delegation visit to Kashmir, at least 19 people were injured when suspected militants hurled a grenade in north Kashmir’s Sopore sub-district on Monday.
The police said militants tossed a grenade at around 3 pm at the busy bus stand in Sopore. The splinters injured at least 19 pedestrians, sources said.
“Six of the injured who had splinter injuries in their neck, head and chest were shifted to Srinagar while others were discharged from the Sopore hospital after initial treatment,” they said. “Condition of an injured woman is stated to be critical.”
Sopore Superintendent of Police Javid Iqbal said there was no security column deployed in the area at the time of the grenade attack. “The grenade was targeted at civilians,” he said.
The grenade attack created panic in the area. Soon after the incident, security forces cordoned the area to track down the ultras.
A 30 member deletion of EU is travelling to Kashmir to assess the ground situation post abrogation of Article 370 in J&K.
This is the second grenade attack in Kashmir in the past three days.
On Saturday, six Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were injured in a grenade attack in Karan Nagar area.
The recent attacks have happened at a time when the security has been beefed up ahead of formal bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories — J&K and Ladakh on October 31.
Dilbag Singh, Director General of Police, J&K, on October 26 said, “There is no input about any major attack on October 31, but militants and their handlers always try to disturb peace. Our effort is to ensure peace. ”