3 Kashmiri pandits shot dead in Jammu

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Three Kashmiri pandits, including a school principal, were gunned down by terrorists at Garhat Gool village in Jammu on Sunday night.

Police sources said the terrorists stopped a bus and asked all the passengers to disembark. They later shot dead the three pandits -- Ashok Kumar Rana, the principal of the Gool government higher secondary school, and two lecturers, Susheel Kumar and Ravinder Kumar. The terrorists later allowed the other passengers to leave. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killing.

An army colonel and four other soldiers were shot dead when an angry jawan went on the rampage at Shopian in south Kashmir on Monday. Elsewhere in the valley, 10 militants were also killed in exchanges with security forces.

A defence ministry spokesperson said a junior commissioned officer and a non-commissioned officer were also killed in an encounter with terrorists at Prang, about 35 km from Srinagar on Sunday evening.

Official sources said militants also lobbed a hand grenade at a security picket at Beehama in Ganderbal on Monday afternoon. The grenade missed the intended target and exploded on the road, injuring seven pedestrians and three security personnel. No one was killed in the incident.