Srinagar, Aug 3 (UNI) At least 16 people, including three police personnel, were injured in a grenade blast near Jamia Mosque at Banihal on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway this evening while three persons, including a woman, were killed and two others wounded in Jammu and Kashmir.

An official spokesman here said unidentified militants hurled a hand grenade at the crowded Banihal Bazar near Jamia Mosque, injuring 16 persons.

The injured, including three police and two fire service personnel, were admitted to hospital where the condition of some is stated to be critical.

He said militants attacked a security force search party at village Aglar Kandi under police station Rajpora. The fire was returned and in the exchange, one Bashir Ahmad Lone was injured.

However, local people alleged that security forces shot at and wounded Lone when he was on his way to the field in the morning.

The spokesman said one woman Manju Devi, a resident of Bihar who was injured in a blast at Chursoo, Awantipora, on the highway on July 30, died in hospital. Two of her sons were also killed and four others wounded in the incident.

One Army personnel was injured when militants attacked a search party at Nawan Gali in the frontier district of Kupwara last night.

the militants however, managed to escape.

Two militants were killed by security forces at Hawai Saloti in an encounter.

Two AK rifles, 11 magazines, 85 rounds, 2 wireless sets, 1 wireless booster, 5 hand grenades, 1 UBGL, 5 UBGL grenades, 2 pistols, 1 GPS, 1 wire cutter, Rs 3,000 and a map (depicting the area from Dara Dullian Poonch to Mendhar Uchad) were recovered from the slain militants.

UNI