04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

SRINAGAR, July 3: Eighteen people were killed and 59 others injured on Saturday in separatist-linked violence in occupied Kashmir which included an explosion in the heart of Srinagar, police said.

Two people were killed and 28 injured in a blast on a main Srinagar road used by government officials including Kashmir's Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, whose residence is 500 meters away, police said.

The explosives were concealed in a hand cart near the main information office for tourists visiting the scenic Himalayan valley town, a police spokesman said.

Indian troops stepped up security after the blast setting up extra checkpoints across Srinagar. No rebel group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

It was the second day of surging violence in Kashmir, where 17 people were killed on Friday.

Three Indian army soldiers and three freedom fighters were killed on Saturday in a fierce gunfight in northern Baramullla district that erupted after troops launched a search operation, the spokesman said.

Indian troops also shot dead three guerillas in the northern Machil sector after they entered from the Pakistani zone of the divided state, army officer Rohit Yadav told AFP at Sonapindi post near the disputed border.

A policeman was killed and two others injured in a guerilla ambush in Poonch district. A grenade attack in central Anantnag district injured four soldiers and 25 civilians, four of them critically, police said.

Suspected militants shot dead three people overnight, including a woman, police said. The motives for the killings were not immediately clear.-AFP