SRINAGAR, July 8: A politician and four civilians died and at least 45 others suffered injuries when suspected militants hurled a grenade outside a Muslim shrine in Indian-held Kashmir on Saturday, police said.

Police said the group had just emerged from visiting the shrine when the rebels lobbed the grenade at them, in the latest attack to shake the region.

“Five people have been killed and at least 45 others have been injured,” a police spokesman told AFP by telephone from Kulgam in the south of occupied Kashmir.

The dead politician was identified as Ghulam Nabi Dar, a popular former legislator in the previous National Conference government.

Mr Dar was among a party led to the shrine by Sakina Itoo, a senior National Conference leader and a member of Kashmir’s upper house.

Ms Itoo, who was injured in the attack, was out of danger but at least three other people were in critical condition, police said, adding that they believed Itoo was the target of the blast.

Ms Itoo has survived at least half a dozen attacks that police have blamed on militants. Her father, also a legislator, was slain by militants in 1990.

No rebel group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

Ms Itoo had caught security officials off guard by visiting the shrine, a senior police officer said. “She was to address a rally at a neighbouring village where we had made adequate security arrangements,” he said.

Five children and six policemen were among the wounded in the explosion. Hundreds of people, many of them wailing, rushed to hospitals looking for their relatives.

“The explosion was deafening, I saw people falling on each other ... bleeding and screaming for help,” Mohammad Shafi, who witnessed the attack, said.—Agencies