SRINAGAR, July 19: Occupied Kashmir's deputy chief minister on Monday escaped the second assassination bid in a week but six people died and 38 were injured in a grenade blast as he addressed a public rally, police said.

Mangat Ram Sharma, roads and buildings minister Ghulam Ahmed Mir and power minister Mohammed Sharief Niaz were unhurt by the powerful explosion, a police spokesman said in Srinagar.

Some 38 others, including six policemen, an American woman and three journalists, were hurt in the attack around 3:50 pm (1020 GMT) in the town of Kapran in southern Anantnag.

The private secretary of one of the three ministers, two women and two men were killed, while at least two state senior leaders of India's ruling party Congress were among the injured.

Mohammad Yousuf Rather, the chief engineer of occupied Kashmir's roads and buildings, also later died in hospital, doctors at the Soura Medical Institute said. "The explosion took place when the public meeting was almost coming to an end," a visibly shaken Sharma told reporters in Srinagar. -AFP