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SRINAGAR: Suspected militants Wednesday lobbed a hand-grenade at forces in south Kashmir's Anantnag town, injuring at least eight persons.
A Jammu and Kashmir Police officer said the grenade was lobbed at a patrol of CRPF forces on duty in Anantnag for smooth conduct of Amarnath pilgrimage which is currently underway in the state.
The attack took place near Oxford Presentation School on Khanabal-Pahalgam Road, leaving several people, including four CRPF men injured.
"There was a bang and people started running for cover," Ghulam Rasool, a shopkeeper in the town, told The Citizen over phone.
Officials said a team of police and Army personnel arrived at the spot and a search operation was carried out but the attackers had escaped.
The injured victims were taken to Anantnag district hospital for treatment where their condition is stated to be out of danger.
This is the second grenade attack in the area within a week. On Sunday, suspected militants had lobbed a grenade on forces near Achabal bus stand of Anantnag, injuring six persons, including a CRPF personnel, of which one civilian, an ice-cream vendor, succumbed.
The south Kashmir region has been swept by a wave of new insurgency with at least 30 young boys, most of them well-off and belonging to financially sound families from four districts of the region, joining militants this year alone.
