Posted on 10/09/2004 10:29:49 AM PDT by TexKat
SRINAGAR (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into an army convoy in Indian Kashmir (news - web sites) on Saturday, killing four soldiers and a civilian and wounding 30 more, police said.
A caller from Jaish-e-Mohammad, a rebel group based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack on a highway near Pattan, south of Srinagar, the summer capital of the region.
The attack comes days after India and Pakistan proposed talks for November and December on various issues, including a bus service through divided Kashmir.
"It was a ground-shaking explosion ... initial reports suggest it was suicide car bomber," a police official said, adding that some houses and vehicles were damaged in the explosion.
Soldiers and sniffer dogs combed the area for militants after vehicles in the convoy were turned into a twisted mass of metal by the explosion that blocked traffic on the highway.
"After a loud bang I saw a huge ball of smoke and dust rising. Moments later, soldiers were removing the dead and injured," said 50-year-old Sana Ullah Mir, who was injured in the explosion.
The latest violence came minutes after thousands of school children held a peace march in Srinagar for the first time since the rebellion broke out in the region in 1989, witnesses said.
Nearly 3,000 school children with banners and placards marched through the tightly guarded streets and banks of the region's famous Dal lake.
"Kashmir is paradise, we will protect it", or "Give peace a chance", said some of the placards.
Violence involving soldiers and separatist guerrillas continues unabated in Kashmir despite peace moves between India and Pakistan who have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region.
New Delhi and Islamabad have held a series of talks this year aimed at building confidence after they went to the brink of another war in 2002.
But progress has been sluggish, particularly on Kashmir. The leaders of the south Asian rivals revitalised the flagging peace process with a meeting in New York last month, vowing to continue talks aimed at restoring normalcy and cooperation.
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