SRINAGAR: Suspected rebels killed a prisoner and wounded four police officers and a passer-by in Kashmir when they lobbed a grenade at a police vehicle yesterday, police said.
The vehicle was hit while passing through a crowded market in the Batamaloo area of the state capital Srinagar. A passer-by also suffered injuries in the attack.
Shakeel Ahmad Ksana, a prisoner who was being shifted to a jail in the vehicle, died while receiving treatment in a local hospital, a police statement said.
“It was a random attack on police. No one has been arrested for the attack,” local police official Afadul Mujtaba told AFP.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan by a UN-monitored boundary known as the Line of Control. But both countries claim the Himalayan region in full and have fought two of their three wars over the territory. Armed violence in Kashmir has declined during the last decade but recent months have witnessed more attacks by separatist militants on Indian forces. On June 24 heavily armed rebels ambushed an army convoy and killed eight soldiers on the outskirts of Srinagar. AFP
