Two children killed in Rajouri grenade blast

A suspected grenade attack killed at least two school going children in the Thanamandi area of Jammu and Kashmir’s border Rajouri district on Wednesday.

“The children were going to their school. We do not know how these children became the victims of the blast, in which they were killed,” Mohammad Shabir, a resident of the area told media.

Another resident, Shokat Shawl, criticising Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, said: “The chief minister claims that peace prevails in the state. I want to ask that if these people are not militants, then who are these people who are promoting militancy and killing innocent children. These people who have committed atrocities on children should be brought to the fore and severely punished.”

Officials, however, claim that rebel violence has dropped sharply after New Delhi and Islamabad launched a tentative peace process in 2004.

Kashmir, claimed by both Pakistan and India but ruled by them only in part, has been the trigger for two of the three wars between the nuclear-armed countries.

——–ANI