960417

Kashmir blast

toll rises to 3

SRINAGAR: An Indian paramilitary trooper wounded in a bomb blast in Kashmir late on Tuesday has died, raising the death toll to three, police said on Wednesday.

Also killed in the explosion on Tuesday were a six-year-old boy and a security officer, while 27 others, including seven security men, were wounded.

A local newspaper said the separatist group Al-Jihad claimed responsibility for the crude bomb, which exploded in a residential street in Srinagar, summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The blast damaged 11 houses and a security vehicle.

Al-Jihad, which is fighting against New Delhi's rule in the Indian controlled part of Kashmir, said several troopers were seriously injured and their senior officer killed, a local English-language newspaper said.

The explosion sparked panicked gunfire from security forces, witnesses said. Some of the injured had bullet wounds, hospital officials said.

More than a dozen guerrilla groups waging a separatist war in Kashmir have vowed to stop India's efforts to hold parliamentary elections next month in the troubled province, which is mainly Hindu India's only Moslem-majority state.

Police and hospitals say more than 20,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence since 1990. The guerrillas are fighting for union with Pakistan or independence.

India is scheduled to hold polls in Jammu and Kashmir on May 7, 23 and 30. Militant group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen warned officials on Tuesday against taking part in the elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, which includes more than 30 separatist groups, said its leaders planned to march to army headquarters in Srinagar on Thursday to "ask the authorities there to stop killings and quit Kashmir".

Public demonstrations are banned in Srinagar and police and paramilitary forces regularly use tear gas and truncheons to disperse protesters.