Indian and Pakistani forces routinely exchange fire along the 750 kilometer LoC

SRINAGAR , Kashmir , August 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A blast rocked Srinagar , the summer capital of India-controlled Kashmir , on Wednesday, August 27, hours before Indian Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee and top politicians were due to arrive.

The blast took place about six kilometers (nearly four miles) from the venue where Vajpayee was to chair a two-day meeting of India 's state leaders, but caused no causalities.

The impact of the blast, which rocked an abandoned house in Srinagar's Chattabal area, was so great it shattered the window panes of at least 10 houses nearby, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"Militants had planted an improvised explosive device in the house which exploded with a bang," a police officer told AFP.

Security for Vajpayee's Kashmir trip, which will extend to a visit to the southern city winter capital Jammu on Friday, August 29, has been drastically tightened in the wake of twin car bombings in the Indian western city of Bombay on Monday, August 25, which claimed at least 44 lives.

Meanwhile police arrested two separatists, Javed Mir and Shahid-ul-Islam, in Srinagar's Maisuma area when they tried to march through the streets holding banners, police and witnesses said.

The banners read "Our sacrifices will not go unrewarded. History bears witness" and "Kashmir problem is a sleeping volcano awaiting destruction of entire world."

Mir is the vice chairman of the JKLF -- the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front -- a separatist group that wants the complete independence of Kashmir from India and Pakistan.

On Tuesday, August 26, a Hindu was killed in an exchange of artillery and mortar shells by Indian and Pakistani troops over their de facto border in Kashmir.

Indian forces charged Pakistani troops with opening "unprovoked fire" at forward Indian positions along the Line of Control (LoC).

India and Pakistan routinely exchange fire along the 750 kilometer (465 mile) LoC and their 230 kilometer (143 mile) international border.

Besides army personnel on both the sides, thousands of civilians and cattle have perished over the years in the exchanges.

More than 38,000 people have died in Indian-administered Kashmir since the eruption of independence-seeking drive in the restive region in 1989.

Separatists put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000, according to AFP.

The two nuclear neighbors had fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over Muslim-majority Himlayan region of Kashmir .

Pakistan and India further reduced their diplomatic relations and cut off rail and air links in escalatory moves following December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.

India blamed the attack on Pakistan-backed Kashmiri fighters while Pakistan repudiated the allegations.

But on May 2, the two countries restored full diplomatic ties to settle half a century of disputes "for the economic and social betterment of their peoples."