SRINAGAR, 29 March 2005 — Two Indian paramilitary troopers were killed and 16 people injured in attacks by militants in restive India-administered Kashmir, police said yesterday.
The troopers were killed in an ambush by militants who attacked with grenades and assault rifles in Metka village of Rajouri district, 150 kilometers northwest of Jammu, Kashmir’s winter capital.
“The Border Security Force personnel were attacked when they were on foot patrol in the tiny mountainous village,” a police spokesman said, adding that nine other border guards were injured.
He said six of the injured were in critical condition. Pro-Pakistan rebel group Jamiat ul-Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the explosion in a telephone call to local media.
Seven civilians were injured, meanwhile, in a grenade explosion yesterday in the southern town of Bijbehara, 40 kilometers south of the summer capital Srinagar, a police spokesman said.
He said the grenade was aimed at an army convoy which missed the target and exploded among pedestrians.
“Three of the injured are critical,” the spokesman said.
On Sunday, 13 civilians were injured in a similar attack in Srinagar. An injured woman died in hospital yesterday, a police spokesman said.
Kashmir is held in part by India and Pakistan but both claim it in full. On April 7, a bus service connecting the two zones of Kashmir will be restarted after a gap of almost 60 years, the first tangible results of the negotiations.
The Indian side of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road to be used by the bus service has been completed ahead of schedule, Indian Army chief Gen. J.J. Singh said yesterday.
“The (Indian side of the) road between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad has been completed seven days ahead of schedule. Only the tarring remains to be done in some segments, and this will also be completed well before the due date,” Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by the War Wounded Foundation.
