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Five hurt in new Indian Kashmir attack

27 October 2011 04:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Five civilians were hurt Wednesday in a grenade attack by suspected militants in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said, as a sudden upsurge of separatist violence strikes the region, APA reports quoting AFP.

The attack, the fifth in two days, took place in Bijbehara town, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Indian Kashmir summer capital of Srinagar.

"Suspected militants hurled a grenade at a police vehicle. It missed its target and hit the road injuring five civilians," a police spokesman said.

He said the area was swiftly cordoned off and a search was launched to arrest those responsible for the attack.

On Tuesday, in a sudden escalation of violence, suspected rebels carried out four attacks across the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, injuring four policemen.

The flurry of attacks follows a relatively peaceful summer in Kashmir, where a 20-year insurgency against rule from New Delhi has often brought normal life to a halt amid protests, clashes with security forces and curfews.

Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Kashmir, announced last week that emergency laws imposed in 1990 allowing security forces to act with near-impunity are to be partially withdrawn as security improves.

Federal army and paramilitary officials are opposed to revoking the law.

Militant violence has dropped sharply in Kashmir since India and Pakistan, which each hold the region in part but claim it in full, started a peace process in 2004.