SRINAGAR, April 1: Freedom fighters exploded a bomb inside a government office in occupied Kashmir on Thursday, saying it was a warning to employees not to take part in preparations for this month's countrywide elections.

The bomb blew up inside a toilet of the municipal corporation office in Srinagar causing minor injuries to an employee and sending people fleeing in panic, a police spokesman said.

"People came rushing out of the building," the police spokesman said. A little-known Kashmiri group, al Arifeen, claimed responsibility for planting the bomb at the tightly guarded building in a telephone call to the local Current News Service (CNS).

"This is a warning to those employees who plan to take part in the upcoming elections," CNS quoted a spokesman for the group as saying. -AFP