SRINAGAR - At least, 32 people, mostly commuters, were injured when suspected militants tossed a hand grenade at a stationary police vehicle at Banihal, a township along the Srinagar-Jammu highway, yesterday. Police officials in capital Srinagar said that the four members of India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and two local policemen besides 26 civilians including 15 schoolchildren and six women sustained splinter injuries in the powerful blast. Four of the seriously injured persons have been brought to Srinagar for specialised treatment, they added.However, independent reports from Banihal put the number of injured as 34 and said that the victims of the blast included an assistant commandant and a sub-inspector of the CRPF.
The bloody incident led to commotion in the town's bazaars and the vehicular traffic on the highway, the only road-link between the Kashmir Valley and rest of India, remained suspended for several hours as the police and paramilitary reinforcements carried out a massive search operation for assailants.