Kashmir: Two Children Killed In Blast

Facts

• Indian officials stated that a bomb blast killed two children and wounded five other civilians on Monday in Dhangri village in the southern Rajouri district, located in Indian-administered Kashmir. This is the same area where four people died a day earlier after two gunmen opened fire at a row of houses.
• This comes as a blast was reported near the home of a victim of Sunday's attack despite a massive ongoing search operation to track down those suspected of involvement in the shooting.
• A reward of 1M rupees [Rs 10 lakh] has been announced for any specific information about militants involved in the attacks, while a special team of the National Investigation Agency reached the crime scene to investigate.
• The six victims of the twin attacks were cremated on Tuesday at Dhangri village cremation ground.
• Police have blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for both attacks targeting the Hindu-majority Dhangri village, which is close to the highly militarized Line of Control that divides the disputed region between Pakistan and India.
• India's Kashmir has been without an elected government for over five years and has been directly controlled by New Delhi since 2019. India regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting the Kashmir fighters — an allegation Islamabad denies.

Sources: Al Jazeera, NDTV, Kashmir Reader, Kashmir Observer, Washington Post, and Dawn.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Kashmir Observer. The Jammu and Kashmir region was incorporated into India's union territory four years ago on claims that stripping the state of its constitutional autonomy was the only way to tackle terrorism. However, the central government has failed to achieve this goal. As New Delhi contributes to the atmosphere of hatred, innocents will continue to be killed as militants do not discriminate between their victims.
• Narrative B, as provided by India TV. These latest incidents in Jammu and Kashmir expose the importance of the Indian nation remaining united and standing with its security forces who are battling Pakistani terrorists daily. An in-depth probe into the security lapses that allowed these twin terror attacks to occur must be conducted to prevent the further targeting of civilians as Pakistan-based terrorists seek to infiltrate the country.