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Town `in chaos' as truck bomb kills 15 in Indian Kashmir

A bomb hidden in a pickup truck exploded in a bustling town in Indian-controlled Kashmir yesterday, killing 15 people, including the suspected attacker and a 14-year-old boy, and injuring at least 60 others, police said.

The blast uprooted trees, shattered two cars and damaged a dozen shops, a school and a post office near a security force's camp in the town of Pulwama, Deputy Inspector General of Police Owes Ahmad said.

At least eight injured people were in critical condition, Ahmad said.

Eleven civilians, three paramilitary soldiers and the suspected attacker were killed.

It was the worst incident of separatist violence in Kashmir since moderate separatist politicians began a historic trip to Pakistan on June 4 for talks on the disputed Himalayan region, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan.

STREWN

Sandals, shoes and broken vehicle parts were strewn across the road, which was stained with pools of blood. Some distance away, textbooks and writing pads were scattered in a damaged classroom of a school.

"After a loud explosion I fell down and could only hear people screaming for help. After a while I saw both my legs were bleeding," one of the victims, Mohammad Shafi, said.

"I have never witnessed such a devastating blast. We are still waiting for details," Abdul Rashid, a police official, said.

Nearly 40kg of highly explosive RDX was hidden in the pickup truck, which had been carrying bricks and sand for construction of a perimeter wall around the area, about 50km south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, Deputy Superintendent of Police Imtiyaz Ahmad said.

"The attacker was riding the truck carrying the bomb and building material. The bomb detonated 500m short of the main buildings," Ahmad said.

CHARRED BODY

An AK-47 rifle was recovered near the charred body of the unidentified attacker found in the truck, he said.

Shortly after the explosion, angry residents came out into the streets protesting delays by officials in rescuing the wounded. Police fired tear gas and warning shots in the air to control the protesters.

Four protesters were injured in a scuffle with police.

A hardline pro-Pakistan faction of a Kashmiri separatist alliance led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani called for a general strike today to protest the attack.

More than a dozen Islamic militant rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan.

At least 66,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict since 1989.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over control of Kashmir, since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

Peace initiatives by India and Pakistan in the past eighteen months have eased tensions in Kashmir.
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