Srinagar:
Kashmir was rocked by yet another grenade explosion today, injuring three civilians.
The explosion, the fifth since yesterday, saw the attacker lob the grenade in a busy market place in Bijbehara in south Kashmir.
The latest attack comes a day after two grenades were lobbed at security installations in central Srinagar in a span of about five minutes followed by an aborted attempt to target a police party with a grenade in south Kashmir's Shopian district. Later, a policeman was shot at and injured in nearby Anantnag district, prompting authorities to tighten vigil.
There was another explosion in Srinagar's Batmaloo area also which caused no damage.
The police said two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants had been arrested last evening with grenades. The duo, Bilal Ahmad Mir and Javed Ahmad Mir, were arrested from Sopore and were allegedly tasked to carry out fresh grenade attacks.
The attacks come days after the Omar Abdullah government decided to revoke the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from certain areas in the state.
The Defence Ministry and the Army are reportedly opposed to the move.
With the sudden string of grenade explosions rocking the Valley, a senior leader of the ruling National Conference party, Mustafa Kamal, yesterday alleged that he suspected the Army to be behind the attacks.
His party promptly went into damage-control mode soon after with National Conference President Farooq Abdullah asking Mr Kamal - who is his brother - to retract his statement.
"People are misunderstanding me through the statement made by me...I have not held Army responsible for today's incidence...Until and unless there is no investigation, one cannot comment on the situation," Mr Kamal had said.
In response to Mr Kamal's allegations, Army sources had said that they would not reply to such 'cheap comments'.