An unknown gunman was seen fleeing after throwing the grenade at a crowd in a local market in the city of Habilayn, the witnesses said.
The Southern Movement, an umbrella group of various factions with demands ranging from equal economic and social rights with the north to total separation from Sanaa, has a strong presence in Lahij.
But the demands of southern separatists appear to have been put on the back burner since protests broke out across most of Yemen in January demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
South Yemen was independent from the 1967 British withdrawal from Aden until the region united with the north in 1990. The south seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived civil war that ended with it being overrun by northern troops. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
