J&K blast toll touches 6

Six persons including four girls were killed in the grenade explosion minutes before the Friday prayers, aimed at Maulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi.

A 22-year-old youth, among the nearly 50 persons injured in a grenade attack on a Muslim scholar in Pulwama district, succumbed on Tuesday to his injuries five days after the incident, raising the death toll to seven.

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Mohammad Yasin Sheikh, who occasionally led mass prayers, suffered multiple splinter injuries in Friday's attack outside the Tahab Mosque, died at the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences at Soura on Tuesday morning, they said.

Six persons including four girls were killed in the grenade explosion minutes before the Friday prayers, aimed at Maulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, a reputed scholar of the Bareilvi sect of Islam, who was also among those injured.

The attacker, who according to the police later confessed that he had acted at the behest of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists to target Dawoodi and was paid Rs 1,000 for it, was arrested immediately.

However, the terrorist outfit condemned the incident saying it did not believe in killing innocent civilians and the person arrested was an informer of security forces.