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Two Dead, 18 Injured in String of Blasts in Indian Kashmir
SRINAGAR, India, July 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - At least two people were killed and 18 others injured in a string of explosions in the troubled Indian state of Kashmir, officials said Monday.
Islamic activists triggered a bomb blast Monday in the Kashmiri summer capital of Srinagar injuring nine people.
The bomb, strapped to a bicycle, was triggered as a security vehicle was passing in the downtown Babademb district, a Border Security Force (BSF) spokesman said.
Five BSF personnel received minor injuries, while four civilians were seriously wounded, the spokesman said.
Responsibility for the blast was claimed by the Pakistan-based pan-Islamic outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.
In a separate attack in the township of Bandipora, some 37 miles north of Srinagar, a civilian died and nine others, including three members of a state-appointed counter-insurgency contingent, were injured in a hand grenade explosion.
Five BSF troopers were among the six others injured in the attack, a police spokesman said.
A civilian was also killed in a separate bomb attack in the northern Kashmiri district of Kupwara late Sunday night, he added.
Separatist activists have vowed to step up their activities in Kashmir, following the failure of last week's Indo-Pakistan summit to agree on a formula for resolving the Kashmir issue.
India also expressed concern Monday about Muslim activists crossing the border from Pakistan into Indian-occupied Kashmir, warning it would take stern measures against such "cross-border infiltration."
"We remain vigilant of such activities which disturb peace," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said in a reply to questions on intensified artillery duels in the region between Indian and Pakistani forces.
"We will resolutely oppose and deal with any move from the other side to promote militant activities or disturbances along the Line of Control," Rao said.
"We will safeguard our security," she asserted.
India argues the Islamic activists cross the border into Kashmir under the cover of cross-border shellings.
India's military response to a Muslim separatist movement in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which New Delhi alleges is sponsored by Pakistan in the form of a "proxy war", has claimed at least 35,000 lives since its launch in 1989.
Pakistan, which puts the death toll at 70,000, denies the charges of "cross-border terrorism" but extends open moral and diplomatic support to what it describes as the Muslim-majority Kashmiris' right to self-determination.
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