Explosion kills 4 Indian policemen in Kashmir
Blast remotely detonated; separatist group claims responsibility
SRINAGAR, Indianadministered Kashmir: Four police were killed Saturday when separatists fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir detonated a bomb on a street they were patrolling, police said.
Streets were deserted and shops and businesses closed when the massive blast struck the northwestern town of Sopore, hitting the police patrol.
The town, famous for apple orchards, is observing a shutdown on the 25th anniversary of a massacre when government forces killed at least 47 people after a paramilitary soldier died in a separatist attack.
The strike was called by separatist leaders who challenge India’s sovereignty over Kashmir. The town was already on high alert with hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers patrolling the area in anticipation of antiIndia protests and clashes.
Police said at least half a dozen shuttered shops suffered extensive damage in the blast that was remotely detonated.
The Jash-e-Mohammed militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the English-language Greater Kashmir n e w s p a p e r. Reinforcements of police and paramilitary soldiers rushed to seal off the area.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Rebel groups demand that Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the region, and most people support the fighters’ cause against Indian rule while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.
Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown since 1989.
11 dead in avalanches Rescuers recovered the bodies of 11 people in Kashmir on Saturday, a day after multiple avalanches hit their vehicles in the Himalayan region, officials said.
Thirteen people were swept away by three near-simultaneous avalanches at three places in a stretch of about 10 km on a mountainous road in Kupawara district on Friday.
Police officer Shamsher Hussain said about 200 police, army and civilian rescuers recovered the bodies of 11 people.
Two people were rescued alive and were in stable condition at a hospital, he said.
Avalanches and landslides are common in Kashmir and have caused heavy death tolls for the Indian and Pakistani armies camped in the region.
At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in three avalanches last year, and in 2012 a massive avalanche in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir killed 140 people, including 129 Pakistani soldiers.