Fourteen people were killed in Indian occupied Kashmir on Sunday in stepped up violence since the Indian prime minister visited the region in mid-November, the Indian occupation army said. Indian occupied Kashmir's freedom fighter group Hizbul Mujahedin claimed responsibility for the attack on the security personnel and said 12 Indian occupation soldiers were killed, Indian occupied Srinagar-based Current News Service said.
In further violence, Indian occupation troops on Sunday shot dead three freedom fighters who had barricaded themselves inside a mosque near Kulgam township after fleeing a military search operation, an army spokesman said.
A team of Indian occupation soldiers had entered the village on Saturday on a tip-off that freedom fighters were hiding there.
The landmine blast was the deadliest since May when 29 Indian occupation soldiers and their families died in a similar explosion on a highway in the northern state. Hizbul also claimed responsibility for that attack.
A police spokesman said at least nine Indian occupation soldiers died when a private jeep ran over the mine killing all 11 people on board, including a policeman and a civilian.
"All the 11 people died instantly with a few of them being blown to pieces," he said, adding the village had been sealed by army and paramilitary forces and searches launched. Meanwhile, a grenade fired in the occupied Srinagar exploded 300 meters (yards) short of a lakeside grave of former Indian occupied Kashmir chief minister Sheikh Abdullah during a commemoration ceremony, police and witnesses said.
Abdullah's son and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah and grandson Omar Abdullah were offering prayers at the grave when the grenade was fired.