SRINAGAR/ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Indian Kashmir yesterday sought to cool tempers of the agitators saying “exemplary punishment” will be meted out to the people involved in the alleged rape and murder of two young Muslim women.

The announcement came a day after scores of people were hurt in clashes with police during fresh anti-India demonstrations sparked by outrage at the women’s deaths.

“The government is committed to uphold truth and deliver justice in a fair and transparent manner, without sparing any police or civil official who is found guilty, involved or negligent,” an official statement said. “Exemplary punishment will be given to the persons involved in the matter, irrespective of their connection or influence,” it said.

The deaths of a 17-year-old girl and her 22-year-old sister-in-law in the Kashmir Valley have sparked widespread anti-India protests since their bodies were found in a stream on May 30. Indian police initially insisted they had drowned, despite allegations from family members that they were abducted, raped and murdered by members of the security forces deployed in the revolt-hit region.

Forensic tests later revealed they had indeed been raped, and police registered a murder case. Separatist leaders have either been jailed or placed under house arrest after leading huge protests.

On Friday, scores of protesters were injured in clashes with Indian police during violent demonstrations in towns across the valley. The protests continue despite a government ban on demonstrations.

Suspected separatist rebels lobbed a grenade at a security patrol in the heart of Srinagar yesterday, wounding four paramilitary soldiers, police and witnesses said. The attack, the first after many months of calm in Srinagar came a day after two Pakistani soldiers were killed in the first ever suicide bombing in a part of Pakistani Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the Taleban in Pakistan yesterday claimed responsibility for the first suicide attack in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, as officials said 17 suspected militants were killed in government operations.

A spokesman for the insurgents said the blast Friday, which hit an army vehicle killing two soldiers, was in retaliation for military operations against the militants in the northwest.

“We claim responsibility for this attack. This was done in a revenge for Waziristan operation and air strikes,” Hakimullah Mehsud, a spokesman for Pakistan Taleban chief Baitullah Mehsud told AFP by telephone from an unknown location.

“We warn the government to stop the operation and air strikes in Waziristan otherwise we will continue such attacks in all over Pakistan,” he said. The blast took place in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani part of the divided Himalayan region.

Officials said the suicide attacker was a Taleban rebel from the northwestern tribal zone of Waziristan. “The suicide bomber has been identified as Abid. He belonged to Taleban group in Waziristan,” Raja Kafeel, a spokesman for the Prime Minister of Pakistani-administered Kashmir told AFP.

Seventeen militants and two civilians had died in government operations since the attack. At least 12 militants were killed and more than a dozen wounded yesterday when Pakistani forces attacked suspected bases of Mehsud and his Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) in South Waziristan.

“Two Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taleban militant hide-outs in Makeen and Laddah, killing 10 Taleban and injuring 15 others,” local tribal police official Syed Akbar Khan told AFP. In a statement, the military said the aerial attack targeted “centers of terrorist training facilities and arms and ammunition dumps at Laddah and Makeen,” without giving any casualties.