Car bomb kills four, wounds 60 in Kashmir (AP) Updated: 2005-11-16 23:15
Suspected Muslim militants set off a car bomb near a major bank in Indian
Kashmir's main city on Wednesday, killing four people and wounding at least 60,
police said.
A Kashmiri man injured in a car explosion is
surrounded by people outside a hospital in Srinagar November 16, 2005.
[Reuters] |
It was the third high-profile attack by militants fighting Indian rule in the
region in as many days.
Police said the bomb was aimed at a former state minister, Usman Majid, who
was among the wounded.
Wednesday's blast by a busy road outside the headquarters of the state-run
Jammu and Kashmir Bank in the heart of Srinagar, was heard across the summer
capital of Indian Kashmir.
"I thought it was doomsday. I saw a lot of dust and smoke and everyone around
me was bleeding and crying for help," Syed Altaf, a 50-year-old injured man said
in hospital, his head bandaged and jacket covered with blood.
The road was littered with damaged vehicles, footwear and pools of blood,
witnesses said.
"Our house shook due to the blast," said Habibullah Lone, a Srinagar resident
who lives three km (two miles) away from the blast.
On Tuesday, Muslim militants threw a grenade and opened fire at a political
rally in Indian Kashmir, killing four people and wounding at least 60, including
a former state minister and two senior police officers.
A day earlier, militants attacked a police picket and killed two federal
troopers and three civilians. One militant was killed in the ensuing gunbattle
that lasted overnight.
Wednesday's attack came as India and Pakistan opened their fifth crossing
point on their militarized frontier to allow relief for victims of the October 8
earthquake to flow across a ceasefire line.
More than 45,000 people have been killed in the Muslim separatist revolt in
Indian Kashmir, the largely Hindu country's only Muslim majority state.
Despite the peace process between the two nuclear rivals, India says Pakistan
has not done enough to stop anti-Indian Islamic militants operating from its
soil.
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