Terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims - seven killed

Terrorists opened fire on a bus near Batengoo in J&K's Anantnag district, about 50km from Srinagar, and the gunfire killed seven pilgrims of Gujarat were killed and 14 others injured, the dead included women. As per initial reports, the bus in which they were traveling was not registered with the Amarnath shrine board and was traveling after permitted hours without adequate security.
This has been reported in indiatimes.com dated 11 July 2017.

According to police sources, the terrorists initially attacked a police bunker at Batengoo and the fire was returned. Subsequently, they attacked a police naka near Khanabal and again faced retaliation. Thereafter, they targeted the tourist bus which was on its way to Jammu from Baltal and was not part of any convoy.
There were general inputs regarding a threat to Amarnath yatris but nothing specific. Moreover, his particular bus did not belong to the official convoy. It was also not registered with the Amarnath board, as required for all non-official vehicles headed for the shrine.
Incidentally, the official convoy had crossed the spot at 7pm, under protective cover of Jammu and Kashmir Police and, therefore, CRPF and security personnel were withdrawn from the area. The attack on the bus took place around 8.20pm.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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At least 70 people, most of them Iranians, have been killed and another 45 wounded when a truck bomb ripped through a petrol station south of Baghdad. The incident happened in the village of Shomali near the city of Hilla which is located some 75 miles southeast of the capital Baghdad.
The target appeared to have been buses that were ferrying Iranian pilgrims heading home after participating in Arbaeen, a major Shia holiday in the holy city of Karbala.
This has been reported in news.sky,com dated 24 November 2016.

Head of the provincial security committee for Babylon, the province where the bombing happened, has revealed that several buses were targeted and that it was a suicide attack. There are at least 70 dead and fewer than 10 were Iraqis, remaining were Iranians.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
As per reports, more than 20 million people visited Karbala this year, and the Iraqi authorities have indicated that around three million of them were Iranians. Iraq had positioned nearly 25,000 members of the security forces in and around the shrine city to protect the pilgrims from a feared IS attack.
Iraqi forces are at present engaged in driving out militants from the northern city of Mosul which had been captured by the ISIS in 2014. This Iraqi city is the last major urban centre still held by the extremist group.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 6 November 2016.

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