SRINAGAR, June 23: Nine policemen and eight civilians were wounded on Friday in two separate grenade blasts in occupied Kashmir, while the army shot dead two militants in the region, police said.

The blasts were triggered by suspected militants in two busy markets shortly before Friday prayers.

“Ten people have been shifted to hospital for treatment after a grenade explosion in Batamaloo locality,” a police spokesman said, referring to a commercial district in Srinagar.

“Six of the injured are Central Reserve Police Force men,” he said, adding that the rebels had lobbed the grenade at a CRPF bunker in the market.

In a separate attack, three CRPF men and four civilians were wounded when a grenade was thrown at a police patrol in a marketplace in southern Doda town, 170 kilometres south of Srinagar, police said.

Police said government troops shot dead two rebels in separate incidents in south and central Kashmir on Friday.—AFP