India
Woman hit by grenade attack at Srinagar market dies – Times of India
Bandipora’s Abida was among the throngs of people at the market near the heavily fortified Tourist Reception Center (TRC) in central Srinagar, where she was shopping for winter clothes for her three children when the attack took place on November 3, injuring her and 11 others hit.
Three militants of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were arrested last week for allegedly throwing the grenade at a CRPF mobile bunker. The grenade missed the target and landed on the road where the market was bustling with people.
The attack took place a day after the killing of a Pakistani LeT commander by security forces in Srinagar and a day before the J&K Assembly was to begin a five-day session. In March 2022, a grenade attack at the same location left two people dead and thirty injured.
The Sunday flea market usually draws large crowds from neighboring districts for its affordable household items and winter clothing, making it a soft target for such attacks.
Back in the Naidkhai area of Bandipora’s Sumbal, home to Abida and husband Zubair Ahmad Lone, everyone’s eyes were moist on Tuesday as they looked at their three children: a six-year-old daughter and two sons, one seven and the other five.
“Why do so many people come to our house,” the seven-year-old son asked his uncle, who struggled to find an answer. The children were unaware of the tragedy that had struck the family. “My mother went to the Sunday market to buy clothes for me and my younger brother and sister. She promised me a blue coat and long boots for the winter,” the son said.
Moments later, some family members took the children away from their one-story home to spare the children the trauma of seeing their mother’s body.
