URI, April 8: Muslim guerillas hurled a grenade at an election rally in Indian Kashmir on Thursday, killing at least nine people and wounding 50, including two state ministers, police said.
The attack in Uri near the Line of Control, was the first poll-related violence in the state before Indian elections later this month. The blast sent people fleeing in panic. Police said security forces fired into the air to scare away the guerillas.
"I could see many lying in pools of blood. There were screams and shrieks from all sides," said Fayaz Ahmed, a cameraman for Asian News International. Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed denounced the attackers. "These are enemies of peace, but their attempts to derail the poll process would never succeed as the people are determined in their quest for order and restore stability in the state," he said.
Police said 16 others, including the chief commander of a hardline rebel group, were killed and 16 soldiers wounded in separate violence across the region.
The election rally blast occurred just as Kashmir Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh and Tourism Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir were entering a school yard accompanied by several thousand cheering supporters, police said.
Police said nine people were killed and 50 injured, including the two ministers who were taken to hospital where they were in stable condition. A lesser known Muslim rebel group, the Save Kashmir Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to a local news agency.
"The spokesman of the group has warned of more attacks on election rallies," the Current News Service news agency said. Rebels have told Kashmiris to stay away from India's elections to be held in four stages in Kashmir from April 20 to May 10, warning them of dire consequences if they take part. Moderate Kashmiri leaders have also urged a boycott, saying the elections will not resolve Kashmir's future.
In the 2002 state elections, some 850 people were killed in poll-related violence. The rally in Uri, 100 kilometres north of Srinagar, was organised by Jammu and Kashmir state's ruling People's Democratic Party.
Finance Minister Beigh was injured in the leg while Tourism Minister Mir was bleeding profusely but he was still talking," a police officer said. However, his bodyguard was killed in the attack, he said. People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti was also at the rally but was unhurt, police said.
Troops sealed off the area and one person was arrested, police said. Uri houses a large army garrison which guards the Line of Control, the de facto border with Pakistan in the divided territory.
Meanwhile, troops on Thursday shot dead the chief commander of Jaish-i-Mohammed, his deputy and three senior commanders, in northern Kupwara district, a police officer said. Chief commander Qari Asif was one of the most wanted rebels in Indian Kashmir, police said.
New Delhi blamed Jaish and another hardline group, Lashkar-i-Taiba, for a deadly attack on the national parliament in late 2001 that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. An army spokesman also said four soldiers and a divisional commander of Lashkar-i-Taiba died in a gunbattle in Kupwara district. Sixteen soldiers were injured, three seriously, he said. -AFP
