Five killed in grenade attack at mosque

Suspected militants hurled a grenade into a crowd outside a mosque in a village in Indian Kashmir today, killing at least five people and injuring another 30, some of them critically, police said.

The dead included two young girls and a boy, Abdul Qayoom, a police officer said.

The attack hit as people were leaving afternoon prayers in the village of Tahat, about 20 miles south of Srinagar, said Qayoom.

Another grenade attack hit the main business centre in Srinagar, wounding two paramilitary soldiers and one civilian, police officer Sajad Ahmed said.

Kashmir has been at the heart of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan with both claiming it in its entirety.

More than a dozen rebel groups are fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the separatist groups, a charge Pakistan denies.