SRINAGAR,
India, January 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 20
people were injured in a grenade attack near a mosque while nine
others were killed elsewhere in renewed violence in the Indian zone of
divided Kashmir, according to officials Friday, January 9.
Police
said an unidentified attacker hurled a grenade at a crowded mosque
during Friday prayers, injuring 20 including two policemen near the
complex in Jammu, the winter capital of India-administered Kashmir,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Earlier,
the police had put at 11 the number of people with shrapnel wounds.
A
police statement in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, said the
grenade missed its intended target and exploded on the roof of a shop
where some residents were offering their Friday prayers.
More
than 40,000 people have died in the Indian zone of divided Kashmir
since the launch of insurgency in the troubled territory in 1989.
The
Himalayan region is held in parts by the two nuclear-capable rivals
and claimed in full by both.
Kashmir
has been the cause of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan
since 1947.
Indian
troops, meanwhile, shot dead eight suspected independence-seekers
Friday in three separate encounters in the districts of Doda, Kupwara
and Baramulla, a police spokesman said, adding a civilian was murdered
by guerrillas in Budgam district.
Two
Pakistani Deaths
In
the meantime, two Pakistani soldiers were killed and two seriously
injured when a rocket hit an army camp in a tribal area following an
operation to capture “terror suspects”.
Military
officials said that a rocket hit an army camp in Wana late Thursday,
killing two soldiers and critically wounding two others.
Thursday's
offensive in the remote Kalu Shah village was launched on suspicions
that some “foreign militants” were hiding in the rugged tribal
terrain near the Afghan border.
However,
the troops found no foreign militants, military officials said.
During
the offensive, the troops combed Kalu Shah village near Wana, which
lies around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Afghan border.
Local
officials said helicopter gunships had fired at five houses during the
operation when troops had come under fire. Three houses were damaged
in the action but there were no civilian casualties.
