Srinagar, India - At least six persons, including four girls, were today killed and about 50 others injured when militants hurled a grenade at a leader of a sect outside a mosque in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.
Militants lobbed a grenade towards the mosque at Tahab, 31 kms from here, in Pulwama district at around 1.15 pm when a large number of people had gathered there to offer Friday prayers, officials said.
Leader of the Barelvi sect Mualana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi was injured in the attack while leading a group of followers through a narrow lane into the mosque where he was scheduled to deliver sermons, they said.
The cleric, whose preachings of Barelvi sect are in contradiction with teachings of Hanafi and Shafaie sects which are followed by majority of Muslims in the state, has been shifted to SKIMS hospital here and was being treated for splinter injuries in his legs, they said.
About 55 people were injured in the blast. Six of them -- Nissar Ahmad, Umer Maqbool, his sister Shiraza, Saleema, Bisma Jan and six-year-old Shazia -- later succumbed to their injuries, the officials said.
Of the injured, 12 were admitted in sub-district hospital in Pulwama and ten others discharged after the first aid. Rest of the injured were brought here for treatment and six of them were stated to be in a critical condition, they said.
Agitated residents of the area indulged in stone pelting on the houses of members of Jamaat-e-Islami party and police had to resort to cane-charge to disperse mob, the officials said.