SRINAGAR: Tension gripped Bemina area of the city in the wee hours on Wednesday following a murderous assault by unidentified assailants on the family of a local cleric , which left his two minor children dead.

The assailants barged into the house of Iftikhar Ahmad at Iqbalabad in Bemina while he was away in the local mosque to lead the pre-dawn prayers, police said.

The assailants slit open the throat of Ahmad's wife, Naseema, and two children with a sharp edged weapon, the police said.

The trio, lying in a pool of blood, were rushed to hospital when the cleric, who hails from Gurez area in Bandipora district, returned home from the mosque, they said.

While the children, Mohammad Hasim (two years) and Aalia (three years) were declared dead on arrival, Naseema was battling for life, police said.