Kashmir school blast kills two

Suspected Islamic rebels tossed a grenade that landed near a school in Indian-controlled Kashmir today, killing two women and wounding at least 57 civilians, most of them schoolchildren and their parents, police said.

The grenade – apparently thrown at a passing vehicle of India’s Border Security Force – missed its intended target and exploded outside the school in central Srinagar, police officer Mohammed Hasib said.

The blast occurred just as hundreds of children were leaving the school, with dozens of parents waiting outside. Most of the wounded were schoolchildren, who were immediately taken to a hospital for treatment, Hasib said.

Two women died of their wounds in the city’s main hospital, Reyaz Ahmad, a doctor at the hospital said, adding that two school boys were also in critical condition.

The explosion wounded at least 57 people including two paramilitary soldiers, 13 schoolchildren, three teachers and 39 other civilians, officials said.

There was chaos at the scene of the explosion as students fled and terrified parents searched for their children.

No individual or group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, most separatist parties have condemned today‘s attack on the school. Yasin Malik, a prominent pro-independence leader termed it as “a dastardly act”.

Meanwhile, four suspected rebels were killed today in two separate clashes between rebels and soldiers elsewhere in Kashmir, Lieutenant Colonel VK Batra, the army spokesman, said.

Two militants were killed in Caso, a village 37 miles south of Srinagar, while two others were killed in a gun-battle in remote Porupet village, north of Srinagar, Batra said.

More than a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting in India’s portion of Kashmir since 1989 for the region’s independence, or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan.

The 15-year insurgency has claimed more than 66,000 lives.