Attacks in Jammu and Kashmir have increased ahead of by-polls in Srinagar next week. (Representational)
A policeman was killed and 10 others including an officer were injured in a grenade attack at Jammu and Kashmir's Nowhatta this evening. A police party was attacked near a police station in Nowhatta in downtown Srinagar when cops were returning from duty today around 7 pm.
"There was stone pelting in the area and a police party came under grenade attack. One policeman was killed," said Imtiyaz Ismael Parray, a senior police officer in Srinagar.
Among the injured is deputy superintendent police of Nowhatta area. The inured have been shifted to a hospital where the condition of some is said to be serious.
This is the second major attack in Srinagar in last two days. Yesterday, an Army convoy was attacked on the Bemina bypass road. Three Army soldiers were injured in the attack.
The spurt in attacks comes ahead of by-elections for Srinagar parliamentary constituency that will be held next Sunday. So far, it has been campaigning has been low key because of an election boycott call by separatist groups.
Today, separatists had called for a strike against the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who
inaugurated the country's longest road tunnel along the Srinagar-Jammu National highway.
In his address after the inauguration, PM Modi
urged the youth of Kashmir to choose tourism and development over terrorism. "While on the one hand youth in Kashmir were busy pelting stones, on the other
some youth were breaking stones to carve out this tunnel," he said, referring to unrest in the state that followed the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani last July.