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| India-Pakistan |
| Kashmir Korpse Kount |
| 2003-12-01 |
| An explosion at a fruit market in Kashmir’s main city has killed at least six people and wounded 37 others, some of them seriously. Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police K Rajendran said: "The bomb was planted in a car and parked near the gate of the fruit market. Six people have been killed and 37 wounded in the blast." The fruit market near the Batamaloo district of Srinagar, the Muslim-majority region’s main city, is located on Kashmir’s major highway. Kashmir’s frontline militant group Hizbul Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the explosion. A spokesman of the rebel group called newspaper offices in Srinagar and said they also set off explosions in the Pulwama and Doda areas of south Kashmir. "We inflicted heavy casualties on the Indian security forces," the spokesman said. Scores of men and women were wailing at the scene of the car-bombing, which was littered with blood-soaked footwear of the dead or injured. "There was a big bang, and after a second, I saw people lying in a pool of blood. Beyond that, I don’t know what happened. I opened my eyes in the hospital," said Mohammad Aslam, a fruit vendor, nursing his wounds. The South Asian rivals have fought three wars since 1947, two of them over Kashmir, and nearly went to war again last year after a late 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that India blamed on Pakistan-based rebels. New Delhi and Islamabad have recently restored full diplomatic relations and cross-border bus links but India has linked fresh talks on improving ties to an end to attacks by the separatists. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |