SRINAGAR: A boy was killed and four others wounded in India-held Kashmir on Wednesday in a blast from a grenade they found from the site of a previous day’s gun battle, police and residents said.

The grenade exploded as one of the kids started playing with it in a neighbourhood in southern Shopian area, police said.

The dead boy’s two cousins and two neighbours also were injured and hospitalised.

Officials say counterinsurgency operations have become difficult in the disputed region because of the shift in public behaviour as residents now display anger at Indian rule openly and violently when troops raid villages and towns to hunt militants.

Earlier, government forces used to sweep areas where fighting would occur, said police chief S.P. Vaid. “Now as an operation finishes, forces leave the area as soon as possible to avoid confrontation” with locals, sometimes leaving behind unexploded explosives, he said.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2018