September 7, 2003	Sunday	Rajab 9, 1424

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SRINAGAR, Sept 6: Seven civilians died on Saturday as Mujahideen set off a car bomb in a busy marketplace in occupied Kashmir, while 13 others died in separate incidents taking to 87 the death toll in a week of bloodletting.

Suspected freedom fighters detonated powerful explosives as an army convoy, including an officer, drove through the Parimpora fruit market on the outskirts of Srinagar, said Tirtha Acharya, spokesman for India’s Border Security Force.

Army officials said 35 people were injured, including an army brigadier, a junior commissioned officer and three other soldiers.

The Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two dismembered bodies lay in the street after the blast, which severely damaged five vehicles, including an army jeep, witnesses said.

Businessman Abdul Rehman said he was on his scooter waiting for the army convoy to pass “when suddenly there was a huge blast and an army jeep was tossed in the air and rolled over.”

“I had never heard such an explosion,” said Mehra Begum, 50, who was walking near her house with her husband when shrapnel hit her face and she fell to the ground bleeding.

Ghulam Rasool, a 35 year-old labourer, was unloading fruit from a truck when shrapnel flew into his right thigh.

Police said on Saturday that two Jaish-i-Mohammad activists were killed overnight when troops raided a suspected hideout in the central Pulwama district.

A police spokesman said two more Mujahideen were killed in a clash at Bandipora, 60 kilometres north of Srinagar.

Meanwhile, three men armed with guns and grenades killed a policemen and a civilian outside Gursai police station in the Mendhar area of Poonch district on Saturday, a police spokesman said.

Police said in the same district suspected men beheaded two women — Mumtaza Begum, 40 and Farzana Kousar, 25, early on Saturday.

Three Mujahideen and two civilians were killed elsewhere overnight and Saturday in occupied Kashmir, police said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Indian troops were positioned in the southern area of Kathua as a standoff with freedom fighters entered its fifth day.

“A massive search operation has been launched. It will continue till we get the dead bodies of the militants or we are satisfied that they have been flushed out of the forest,” said Lieutenant General T.P.S Brar.—AFP