Srinagar, India - Suspected militants hurled a grenade at a jeep carrying Hindu pilgrims yesterday, injuring five people in Indian Kashmir, police said.
The pilgrims were on their way to Amarnath, a Hindu shrine in a mountain cave in India's Jammu and Kashmir state, when the militants hurled the grenade at their vehicle near Ganderbal, 15km south of Srinagar, the state's summer capital, said Mohi-ud-din, a local police officer who uses only one name.
The injured were in a hospital in Srinagar, where three were undergoing treatment, said Dr Riaz Ahmed, a hospital spokesman.
The month-long pilgrimage is officially scheduled to open on July 8 but hundreds of pilgrims have already begun making the arduous trek to the icy cave. Hundreds of others were waiting at the nearby base camp of Baltal, preparing for the trek.
Officials say 500,000 pilgrims were expected to make the 52km hike to the Amarnath shrine.
The Himalayan cave houses an icy stalagmite worshipped as an incarnation of the Hindu deity Shiva.
The popularity of the trek has increased despite attacks almost every year by groups of militants fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence or its merger with neighbouring Pakistan.
No group claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack.
Nine pilgrims were killed in a grenade attack in 2002 while on their way to Amarnath.
Officials say 500,000 pilgrims were expected to make the 52-kilometre trek to the Amarnath shrine.