Conflicts & War

Blast kills civilian in India-administered Kashmir

Srinagar, India, Mar 9 (EFE).- One person was killed and more than a dozen were injured when a blast went off outside a court complex in the Hindu-majority Jammu region of India-administered Kashmir on Wednesday, police said.

Udhampur district police chief Vinod Kumar told reporters that the injured were hospitalized and the nature of the blast was being ascertained.

“The explosion took place in the marketplace at Udhampur’s Salathia Chowk which has now been cordoned off by police and security forces personnel,” a witness told EFE.

The witness said the blast went off under a vending cart.

The blast took place three days after a grenade explosion killed two civilians, including a 20-year-old woman in Srinagar, the main city of the disputed region.

The grenade exploded Sunday on the road in the main business hub of Srinagar.

At least 25 people, including two policemen, suffered injuries.

Police arrested two suspects from Srinagar who were allegedly involved in the grenade attack.

The disputed Himalayan region is the hotbed of clashes between the Indian security forces and armed rebel groups that seek Kashmir’s independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Indian-administered Kashmir has been witnessing an armed independence rebellion for three decades, described as terrorism by New Delhi, in which tens of thousands of people have died since 1989, most of them civilians.

Pakistan has been claiming sovereignty over the region since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars and numerous minor clashes over Kashmir. EFE

sa/ssk

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