24 May 2004	Monday	04 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

LOWERMUNDA, May 23: At least 28 people were killed in occupied Kashmir on Sunday when a bus packed with Indian soldiers and their families ran over a landmine planted by freedom fighters, officials said.

The attack, which came one day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took office, was the deadliest in Kashmir since India and Pakistan began a peace process late last year to resolve the dispute over the territory.

Torn limbs, blood-stained shoes and clothes and lunch-boxes with rice and bread lay strewn on the highway at Lowermunda, 100 km south of Srinagar. The bus - part of a convoy going from Srinagar to Jammu, the state's winter capital - was left a twisted mass of metal near a giant crater on the highway carved through Himalayan foothills.

Soldiers and sniffer dogs combed the area for more mines. A senior police official, K. Srinivasan, said 19 Border Security Force troopers, three children and six women were killed in the blast.

Mr Singh, who took office on Saturday, said his government remained committed to a peaceful resolution of all disputes. "I have learned with the deepest sorrow about the latest cowardly act of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir... The persistence of this senseless violence in Jammu and Kashmir is yet another indication that terrorism continues to pose a grave threat to our nation's integrity and progress," he said in a statement.

"While we will continue to seek peaceful resolutions to all outstanding problems, there can be no compromise on our solemn resolve to deal with the menace of terrorism with firm determination."

MILITANTS: The blast took place near the Pir Panjal mountains, a favoured hideout for militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, where tens of thousands of people have died in 15 years of rebellion. Leading Kashmiri group, Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the blast. -Reuters