2 jawans, 8 civilians injured in grenade attack on CRPF convoy in J&K

Srinagar: Eight civilians and two CRPF jawans were injured in a grenade attacked in Jammu and Kashmir’s southern town of Shopian, 52 kilometres from Srinagar, on Tuesday.

Police sources and witnesses said that suspected militants tossed a hand grenade towards the CRPF jawans deployed in the town’s Bon Bazaar area resulting into the casualties. The CRPF men were out on law and order duty along with their Vajra vehicle when targeted from an alley, the witnesses said.

The police sources added that eight civilians including three women and two CRPF jawans were injured. All the injured were taken to nearby government-run district hospital and the doctors said that they had sustained minor splinter injuries in the blast and are stable. The CRPF and J&K police reinforcements quickly laid siege to the area to start searches, witnesses said.

Meanwhile, protests were held in Ghasipora area of neighbouring Kulgam district against the death of a local resident Owais Ahmed Sheikh after being hit by an Army vehicle. The police said that it has registered a case and taken up investigations.

In Srinagar, police said that 66 more people were arrested during the past 24 hours on charges of causing disturbances and indulging in stone-pelting incidents in various parts of the Valley. During the past over three months more than 5,000 arrests have been made in the Valley and Jammu’s Kishtwar district in the tough campaign launched by the police to contain the civil unrest triggered by the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

Parts of Srinagar continued to remain under curfew whereas several people were injured in fresh clashes in southern Pulwama on Tuesday.