Three die in Kashmir explosion

Suspected Islamic guerrillas attacked a counter-insurgents’ camp in Indian Kashmir today, setting off an explosion that killed at least three people and injured eight others, police said.

The counter-insurgents are militants who have surrendered and now work for the security forces.

Their camp is at Aishmuqaam in Anantnag district, 50 miles southeast of Srinagar, summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state.

Such camps have been regular targets of attacks by Muslim rebels fighting for Kashmir’s independence from Indian rule, or its merger with Islamic Pakistan.

Anantnag’s police chief GH Bhatt said police were investigating how the bomb was smuggled into the camp, which is normally well guarded.

Suspected rebels also threw a grenade at an MP’s house in Puluwama district, about 35 miles south of Srinagar, police said. No one was injured in the attack.

Also today, opposition leader Sonia Gandhi visited the site of a weekend massacre in Jammu, where 28 slum dwellers were killed in a gun and grenade attack.

"The militants are carrying out massacres of innocents one after the other and this is happening due to lack of any concrete policy to deal with militancy," Gandhi said.

Gandhi’s party yesterday criticised the government for covering up its own failings by blaming Pakistan for every terrorist attack in the country.

India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring the 12 year insurgency in Kashmir, which has killed more than 60,000 people. Islamabad denies the charge.