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Three soldiers were killed on Thursday in an explosion in Frislan village on the Pahalgam-Chandanwari road, the traditional route to the Amarnath cave in south Kashmir, police sources said.
The sources said that army troops were on their way to Chandanwari when their vehicle hit a landmine planted by terrorists.
"Three armymen died on the spot and the vehicle was extensively damaged," they said.
The Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The mine blast was carried out by our activists at Chandanwari," a spokesman of the outfit told a local news agency, Kashmir Press Service, in Srinagar.
Security was being beefed up along the route to the shrine, as the month-long pilgrimage would begin on July 22.
Registration of pilgrims was on and according to sources hundreds had been registered at various branches of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank.
Last year, over 100,000 pilgrims had darshan at the shrine.
"We have made elaborate security arrangements all along the trek and near the cave shrine for the pilgrims. We are installing 40 STD booths, 13 medicare camps along the yatra route," said an official in Srinagar.
He said a 22-bed hospital would start functioning at Chandanwari while the authorities would set up a 10-bed hospital at Seshnag.
The government had also decided to install diesel generators at all the halting stations to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Fifty vehicles would be available to carry pilgrims to the base camp at Chandanwari.
Meanwhile, tension gripped Anantnag town on Thursday afternoon when terrorists attacked a patrol party of the Central Reserve Police Force with a grenades.
Police said 28 civilians and three members of the CRPF received injuries.
Meanwhile, five villagers were gunned down by unidentified militants at village Gurweth, Shopian in the southern Pulwama district on Thursday.
Elsewhere in the state, the security forces at village Gadool Kokernag in southern Anantnag district gunned down three militants.
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