September 22, 2003	Monday	Rajab 24, 1424

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SRINAGAR, Sept 21: Twenty-one people died on Sunday in violence in occupied Kashmir, including four civilians killed by a bomb outside a liquor shop, police said

Suspected Kashmiri fighters placed explosives inside a video cassette recorder left in front of the alcohol store in the town of Rajouri, police said.

“A group of people went to see the VCR and it blew apart, killing two people on the spot,” a police official said.

Doctors at the Rajouri hospital said four people were killed in the blast and 28 injured, including seven in serious condition who were airlifted for treatment in Jammu.

Elsewhere in occupied Kashmir, an Indian soldier and two Mujahideen died in a gunbattle at Gursai in the Poonch district, a police spokesman said. Indian troops shot dead six more Mjahideen in three separate incidents, said a police spokesman in Srinagar.

Police said Mujahideen also killed five civilians in four incidents around the state. One of the victims was a woman identified as Raihana Reshi.

Three civilians were killed and three others injured overnight when Indian and Pakistani troops traded fire across their border in Kashmir region, police on the Indian side said on Sunday. A police spokesman said Pakistani shells damaged 15 shops.—AFP