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Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Nine people, including five army soldiers, were killed and 26 wounded when militants detonated a powerful Improvised Explosive Device on the strategic Srinagar-Jammu National Highway near Lower Munda, some 75 kms from Srinagar, when two vehicles carrying army personnel was passing through.
The police said seven people, including five soldiers, were missing after the blast.
The police said a IED planted by militants was set off when two public transport vehicles carrying army soldiers and their families reached Lower Manda on Srinagar-Jammu highway on Saturday morning, nearly 75 kilometres from Srinagar in south Kashmir Anantnag district.
The massive blast flung both the vehicles several hundred metres down into the gorge resulting in the instantaneous death of seven, including five armymen, and serious injuries to 26. They dead included two children.
Army sources said the seriously injured have been airlifted to the army's Base Hospital in the cantonment area of Srinagar, where doctors said that two women succumbed to their injuries.
The two women and children who died in the blast were the family members of the soldiers travelling to Jammu.
Sources said the two private buses were carrying soldiers and their families to Jammu when they hit the planted IED on the highway.
Hizbul Mujaheedin and Al-badr phoned local agencies to claim responsibility for the attack.
In Srinagar, militants fired rifle grenades towards the headquarters of the paramilitary Border Security Force in Karan Nagar locality. The grenades did not cause any damage.
In other incidents in the daylong violence in Kashmir two prominent National Conference activists and a cop were killed, while two police officers were among eight wounded in Srinagar.
While Abdul Aziz Gujri was shot dead by militants near Bohrikadal in old city, Hamidullah Wani was shot dead at Kathidarwaza in the old town.
A powerful blast on the Srinagar-Baramulla highway resulted in serious injuries to a soldier and partial damage to a vehicle.
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