New Delhi - Six Hindu pilgrims were killed after militants
opened fire on a bus in India's Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir
state on Monday, officials said.
A group of militants opened fire on a bus travelling through the
Anantnag district, some 50 kilometres south of Srinagar.
The pilgrims inside the bus were returning from the Amarnath cave
shrine, dedicated to the god Shiva, located at a height of 3,888
metres in the Himalayas.
Six pilgrims were killed and 12 more were injured in the attack, the
state's senior police official Muneer Khan said.
This is the first time in nearly two decades that Amarnath cave
pilgrims have come under attack. At least 32 pilgrims were killed in
an attack in 2000.
Media reports said the bus was not part of the main pilgrimage convoy
and apparently did not have any security cover. The buses travel in a
convoy guarded by paramilitary forces.