7 Amarnath pilgrims among 10 injured in Kashmir blast

Srinagar, July 31 (UNI) Seven Amarnath pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab were among the ten people injured in a grenade blast at a crowded bus stand in Batmaloo this afternoon, official sources said.

They said unidentified militants hurled a hand grenade at a local bus. The grenade exploded inside the bus injuring ten Amarnath pilgrims.

The injured were immediately shifted to SMHS hospital by locals and police.

The injured told UNI, in the hospital, that they were on their way to cave shrine at the bus stand when the blast occurred.

'Before we could understand what had happened, we were bleeding,'' they said, adding, ''the locals helped us to move out of the damaged bus.'' A police spokesman of Zonal police headquarters identified the injured pilgrims as Behar son of Mahoor, resident of UP, Rohit son of Ram Grash, resident of Gorakhpur, UP, Budi and his brother Udaya sons of Sham Dev resident of Basantpur Mehrahgung, UP, Geevant Parsad son of Mangroo resident of Baantpur, UP, Ramanand son of Prabunath resident of Gorakhpur, UP and Surjeet Kour wife of Nirmal Singh resident of Jalandhar, Punjab.

The three others injured were locals, he said.

This is the first attack in the city after police claimed to have arrested Mudasir and Bengali, who masterminded a series of grenade attacks on tourists early this month.

UNI BAS PR DB1812