Srinagar, Sept 06: In escalated violence a week after the killing of top militant Gazi Baba, ultras today triggered two blasts, one at a crowded market on the outskirts of the city, and engaged security personnel in fierce gunbattles across Jammu and Kashmir, killing 26 people and injuring scores of others. Nine people were killed and 30 injured when militants exploded a car bomb at the main gate of a fruit market in Parimpora when an army jeep was passing by at around 9.45 am, official sources said.
Two security personnel and as many civilians were killed on-the-spot and 35 others, including four army personnel, injured. One of the injured succumbed on way to hospital and four after reaching there. The condition of most of the injured was critical, they said.
Brigadier A C Chopra, Captian Hitendra Singh and two jawans who were in the jeep which turned turtle under the impact of the blast were among those injured.
However, defence spokesman Lt Col Mukhtar Singh denied any death of security personnel. Six personnel were injured in the blast, he said.
The explosive-laden ambassador car, the army vehicle, two trucks and three three-wheelers were badly damaged in the blast which led to cracks in a nearby house and shattered window panes of a few others. It was heard in a two-km radius.
In Doda district, a powerful landmine exploded at around 11.45 am at Chirala near the Jammu and Kashmir national highway, injuring two persons in an army bus which rolled down a 50-feet-deep gorge under the impact of the blast. The two were the only occupants of the bus.
Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for both the blasts.
As the blasts rocked the state, a road clearing party of security personnel detected and defused a powerful IED planted under a culvert on the Jammu and Kashmir national highway in Pulwama district. The seven-kg explosive was kept in a plastic can at Kadlabal-Awantipora, the sources said.
Even as the gunbattle between seven holed up Lashker-e- Toiba militants and a joint security force entered the fifth day in Ghati area of Kathua district, ultras engaged security personnel in another encounter in Mendhar area near the Line of Control. Two militants were killed in the gunfight.
In another attack on security forces, militants killed an army jawan and injured three others opening indiscriminate fire on a patrol party in at Haigam village in Baramulla district, the sources said. Security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a massive manhunt for the ultras.
A special police officer, an ultra and a civilian were killed and three persons injured in an encounter after militants attacked a police party near a police station in Gursai forest area in Poonch district this afternoon.
The police party was returning from Ghalota sector after killing two militants in an encounter last night.
Two Jaish-e-Muhammad militants were shot dead and a security personnel injured in an encounter in Pulwama district, a BSF spokesman said. Bureau Report