Eight policemen including an officer were injured in a grenade blast in Pulwama town on Friday, the police said, even as clashes erupted in the area soon after the attack.
An official said that militants lobbed a grenade at Pulwama police station at around 4.30 pm.
The grenade exploded with a bang outside the police station, but in front of the tehsil office, leaving eight policemen including an officer of 18 battalion Indian Reserve Police, injured.
The injured were identified as assistant sub-inspector Muhammad Shafi Choudhary and seven constables including Ghulam Nabi Wagay, Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat, Bilal Ahmad Mir, Muhammad Ishaq Shah, Jagdish Raj, Mushtaq Ahmad, Farooq Ahmad Mir.
The injured were immediately shifted to district hospital Pulwama where all of them are stated to be “stable.”
However, two of the injured including the officer Choudhary and constable Wagay were later referred to Srinagar base hospital for specialised treatment, a source said.
Many private vehicles also were damaged in the blast, which triggered panic in the area.
Soon after the explosion, the area was cordoned off by the forces to nab the attackers.
“As the injured were being taken to the hospital, youth took to streets and pelted the forces personnel with stones near police station, Muran Chowk and near the hospital,” a witness said.
The forces fired several rounds in the air and also lobbed several gas shells to disperse them, the witness said.