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India denies bombing claim

One killed in clash

between Kashmiri

groups

NEW DELHI: One person was killed and another wounded in a clash between two rival Kashmiri militant groups at a historic Muslim shrine, Indian media said on Friday.

Members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen fired at each other late on Thursday at the Hazratbal mosque on the outskirts of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, United News of India (UNI) reported.

A JKLF militant was killed and a woman wounded in the firing, the UNI and the AIR reported.

About 10,000 Muslims were attending prayers at the shrine on the birthday of Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H), UNI said. The shrine displays what is believed to be a hair from Mohammad's beard.

Goverment officials in Srinagar were not immediately available for comment

Meanwhile, a Kashmiri Mujahideen group said on Thursday it killed 18 Indian soldiers in a bomb blast along a Hindu pilgrim route, but India denied such a bombing took place.

Harkat-ul-Ansar, which threatened to disrupt the pilgrimage to Amarnath cave ending on Thursday, issued a statement in Srinagar, claiming responsibility for four blasts.

The pilgrimage was held near the region where five Western tourists were abducted six weeks ago. Several separatist Kashmiri leaders have urged the mysterious al-Faran group to free them, but their fate was still in doubt.

Harkat-ul-Ansar said one of its four bombs exploded at Wuthu Kalar between Chandanwari and Sheshnag, key points on the pilgrim trail, and killed 18 Border Security force troopers.

It said a second explosion at Pissu Top, 11,500 feet up, injured 10 pilgrims and 20 BSF troopers. But a government spokesman denied both blasts.

Officials said the day's only violent death took place in a blast at Chandanwari, 32 km from the 13,000-foot Amarnath cave, site of an annually-occurring ice stalagmite representing a phallic symbol of god Shiva.

They said a bombing at Sheshnag, 20 km from Amarnath, did not kill or injure anyone.

Harkat-ul-Ansar claimed responsibility for both blasts on a tense day marking both Prophet Mohammad's (P.B.U.H) birth anniversay and the end of the annual Hindu pilgrimage.

In Srinagar, police broke up a separatist march by firing tear gas and arrested Javed Mir, a leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), and Imtiaz Malik.-Reuter