SRINAGAR — Two powerful blasts rocked Indian portion of Kashmir yesterday, killing at least six people and wounding 40 others, a senior paramilitary officer said.
Suspected insurgents, opposed to the historic trans-Kashmir bus service, triggered a small blast then detonated a bigger bomb in an abandoned car on a busy street in Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, Hari Lal, an officer of the Central Reserve Police Force said.
The nearly simultaneous blasts left three soldiers and three civilians dead, Lal said. An additional 30 civilians and 10 soldiers were wounded in the explosions, which also damaged several vehicles, he said.
“No civilized society can accept this,” said Indian Kashmir state Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The bomb destroyed a two-story building in the busy commercial area dotted with camps for security personnel, blew out windows of nearby shops and houses and created a massive crater in the road.
“This is one of the most powerful explosions I have ever seen,” a police officer said in Srinagar. “It’s a miracle more people weren’t killed,” said another police officer.
“We ran for our lives,” said Harvinder Singh, a shop employee being treated in hospital.
The pro-Pakistan Al-Nasireen group, one of four rebel outfits opposed to the bus service launched last month linking the divided Himalayan region telephoned a news agency to claim responsibility and warned it would stage more attacks.
“By detonating the car bomb we have exposed the security lapses in Srinagar,” the group told the local Current News Service.
The rebels fear the service will take the steam out of the separatist cause by allowing more people-to-people contact and have vowed to turn the buses into “coffins.” So far, however, the two-way service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani zone, has made three runs safely.
Seven people were also killed in violence elsewhere in Kashmir yesterday.
Suspected rebels attacked an army patrol killing two soldiers in Chunti-Mulla village, 70 km north of Srinagar, a police officer said. The attackers fled after the ambush.
Indian soldiers, meanwhile, intercepted and shot dead three militants attempting to infiltrate Indian-controlled territory from Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir early yesterday near Tangdhar sector, north of Srinagar, defense spokesman Lt. Col. V.K. Batra said.
And a schoolteacher and a former militant were gunned down by suspected rebels in two separate incidents, police said.
Separatists have vowed to continue fighting Indian forces despite India and Pakistan declaring a cease-fire in Kashmir and holding talks aimed at settling the decades-old Kashmir dispute. Rebels want to be part of the India-Pakistan dialogue that began in January last year.
Authorities say that nearly 160 rebels, including 38 commanders, have been killed in the Indian portion of Kashmir since January.
“The loss of their leaders has put tremendous pressure on the militants. There is desperation among their ranks which makes them commit such actions,” said K. Srinivasan, the intelligent chief of India’s paramilitary Border Security Force. — Additional input from AP.
