NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Four women devotees were killed and 50 persons were wounded, in a hand grenade explosion at Charar-e-Sharief, 28 km south west of the summer capital Srinagar, on Friday.
For the first time in the history of the shrine, hundreds of devotees had to return home without offering Friday prayers, at the tomb of Sheikh Noor Din, the patron saint of Kashmir.
Police sources said some persons hurled the grenade on devotees who were offering prayers. The injured devotees, including several women, were rushed to hospital.
Two women succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital. Two others, who were critically wounded and rushed to Srinagar's bone and joint hospital and Soura medical institute, succumbed to their injuries later.
"Women and men ran around for security, following the deafening sound. When I noticed blood oozing out from my arm, I ran and cried for help. A relative helped me," said a woman, crying in pain while being taken to the operation theatre of the hospital.
"There was complete darkness. Seconds later, I realised that I was hit by splinters and found others around me in a pool of blood," she added.
Witnesses said policemen fired several rounds in the air as panic-stricken people ran out of the shrine. Some devotees shouted religious slogans.
Thousands of people later protested on the premises of the shrine against the "indiscriminate firing by the state police''.
The protestors indulged in heavy stone-pelting on the district police chief and district magistrate of Budgam, who had gone to the spot after news about the explosion at the tomb of Sheikh Nur Din reached the district headquarters.
Guards of two officers fired warning shots, to disperse the mobs.
The demonstrators shouted slogans demanded immediate shifting of the police officers.
"The police fired indiscriminately on devotees, resulting in injuries to them," the locals told journalists at a local hospital.
However, Jammu and Kashmir police chief Ashok Suri denied the police's involvement in the incident.
He told a local news agency that the militants had targeted the local station house officer and his guards. The grenade, Suri said, missed the target and exploded near the devotees.
Minister of State for Home Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, accompanied by Kashmir's divisional commissioner and senior police officers, rushed to the town following the attack. No one has yet claimed responsibility.
The shrine, one of the most revered structures in Kashmir, was gutted during a fierce gun-battle between the security forces and militants, who were holed up in the town some years back.
They were led by top Hizbul Mujahideen militant, Major Mast Gul.
Charar-e-Sharief town was also destroyed in the blaze two days before the shrine was gutted.
The army had laid a siege around the shrine in early March after a group of Hizbul Mujahideen and Hakat-ul-Mujahideen militants led by Gul entered the town. The siege ended in the second week of May 1995.
Thereafter, troops were deployed in the town.
Gul, who was holed up in the town, however, escaped during the gun-battle and reportedly crossed over to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
A new shrine is nearing completion.
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
