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Ten Killed, 23 Injured In Kashmir Car Bomb Attack
By Izhar Wani
SRINAGAR (AFP) - At least 10 people were killed Monday when individuals set off a powerful car bomb near an Indian army zone in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar, police and witnesses said.
Two separate Islamic groups claimed responsibility for the explosion, with one of them asserting the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who had traveled from Britain for the mission.
A police spokesman said six Indian soldiers, three civilians and a Kashmiri fighter were among those killed.
At least 23 others were injured in the attack in Srinagar's fortified Badami Bagh army cantonment district.
The previously unknown Jamiat-ul-Mujahedeen group from Pakistan was the first to claim responsibility for the blast, adding that the attackers had escaped unharmed.
Jash-e-Mohammad, another obscure group, also said it was responsible. It identified the attacker as Abu Abdullah from Birmingham, Britain. They said he was on a suicide mission and died in the blast.
Srinagar police chief Ashok Bhan, however, rejected the claim and said the attack was conducted with the help of a remote-controlled device.
Bhan said the blast occurred outside the cantonment gates near a Srinagar shopping mall.
The incident coincided with four separate bomb attacks in Pakistan, which left at least 37 people injured.
The army headquarters here said the attack was aimed at sabotaging an ongoing Indian process to restore peace in disputed Kashmir.
"In efforts to disrupt and annul the ongoing peace negotiations, which are gaining momentum and strengthening with each passing day, militants from an as yet unidentified group detonated a car bomb," the army said in a statement.
Some Kashmiri fighters have rejected as propaganda a unilateral ceasefire by Indian troops in Kashmir, which was announced for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and extended on Wednesday for another four weeks until January 26th.
Hardline groups have threatened to escalate violence not only in Kashmir but also to strike at key installations across India.
The Christmas blast is the second car bomb attack in the cantonment area this year. In April, a Jash-e-Mohhamad suicide bomber detonated a car there, killing seven soldiers and injuring several civilians.
And fighters of the pan-Islamic Lashkar-e-Toiba guerrilla force stormed the army headquarters in November and killed four soldiers and three army officials.
Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Monday blamed Pakistan for the attacks during the Ramadan ceasefire in Kashmir.
"Violence is very much on in the [Kashmir] state. The Lashkar-e-Toiba is still active but the group cannot function if Pakistan in all honesty puts a stop to its activities.
"Pakistan should talk to the militant groups and stop the killing of innocent people," Advani said.
On Friday night, two gunmen from the Pakistan-based Lashkar group shot dead three people in a daring raid in New Delhi's Mughal-built Red Fort.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, meanwhile, said the Red Fort attack was a result of a "security lapse" but assured the public that it would not derail the ongoing India-Pakistan peace process.
"There has been a security lapse at the Red Fort and measures are being taken so that it is not repeated," he told a private network.
A separatist campaign in Indian Kashmir has claimed more than 34,000 lives since 1989.
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