Eight persons were injured in a powerful hand grenade blast outside a mosque in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday morning.

A senior police officer said the grenade exploded outside a village mosque in Trenz village of Shopian worshippers who had gone to offer morning prayers.

"The grenade was kept on roadside in a steel glass after removing its pin. Someone touched it, triggering the blast at around 6 am," a police official said.

"The injured were evacuated to hospital for treatment.  The condition of one person is serious,” the officer said.

He said another grenade was found outside the house of an active top Hizbul Mujaheedin militant Waseem Ahmad Malla at Pahlipora village in the same district. It was later defused by the bomb disposal squad.

Three cops and a civilian were injured when militants attacked a naka party of the security forces near police station Khanyar in old city on Wednesday evening.