Militants lobbed a grenade at a police party in a busy market of Shopian on Monday, wounding 12 persons including a little girl and disrupting peace yet again in the Kashmir Valley where the Centre had announced a Ramzan-time truce last month.
Four constables also suffered wounds in the incident alongside the road in the thickly populated Batapora area of the city, 40 km south of the state capital Sringar, police said.
A police spokesman told Outlook that a girl, whose identity was yet to be confirmed, has received critical injuries in this explosion. The injured have been shifted to nearby hospital, he added.
Advertisement
The Opposition National Conference condemned the attack, terming it an act of cowardice and ruthlessness amid the holy month for Muslims. “My solidarity with those civilians and police personnel who are injured, including the young girl who is reported to be critical,” said NC spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu.
The area has been cordoned off, agency reports said, quoting the police. An investigation was into the matter, which comes five days after a similar incident in the Valley. On May 29, three army personnel were injured in an IED blast in Shopian district—between between Sugan and Chillipora area.
The ongoing ceasefire notwithstanding, only last weekend had security agencies warned the public of a surge in recruitment of local youths into militant groups, putting the number above 80, amid a rise in infiltration from various sides of the Line of Control. The highly volatile Shopian and Pulwama districts in south Kashmir continued to contribute more youths to extremist outfits such as ISIS-Kashmir and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a group which claims support of the Al-Qaeda, according to agency reports.
