Six dead in Kashmir market blast

Explosives hidden under the snow in the main market of Baramula killed six people today, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir said.

The explosives were hidden by the road running through the town, 35 miles north of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

Mohammed Amin, the town’s deputy inspector general of police, said the explosives could have been intended to detonate when an army convoy passed by.

More than 61,000 people have died since Islamic militant groups began fighting in 1989 to make the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir independent or to join it to neighbouring Pakistan.

India says the militants, whose attacks kill civilians as well as its security forces, are terrorists aided by Pakistan.

Pakistan’s government denies giving material aid to the militants, whom it calls freedom fighters, but says it supports their cause.