By Canadian Press

12 Indian soldiers killed, 40 wounded by car bomb in Kashmir

Feb 14, 2019 | 7:33 AM

SRINAGAR, India — At least 12 soldiers were killed and 40 others wounded Thursday in a car bomb attack on a paramilitary convoy along a key highway in Indian-controlled Kashmir, security officials said.

Senior police officer Muneer Ahmed Khan said the attack occurred as the convoy reached Pampore on the outskirts of the disputed region’s main city of Srinagar. He said one bus was destroyed and at least five other vehicles were damaged by the blast.

A paramilitary official said the destroyed bus was carrying at least 35 soldiers.

Authorities blamed rebels fighting against Indian rule for the attack.

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Khan said soldiers and counterinsurgency police reinforcements were deployed in the area.

Sanjay Sharma, a spokesman for India’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force, said many of the injured were in critical condition. “The blast was so powerful that one cannot recognize whether the vehicle was a bus or a truck. Just pieces of mangled steel remain of the vehicle,” he said.

The Greater Kashmir newspaper reported that militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack. It quoted a local news gathering agency as saying a militant rammed an explosive-laden car into the convoy.

Kashmir Gov. Satya Pal Malik accused Pakistan of guiding the attack. “Visibly it seems to be guided from across the border as Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility,” Malik said in a statement. “Such actions will not deter the resolve of our security forces … we will finish these inimical forces to the last.”

Videos circulated by local news groups showed ambulances rushing to the site and people running as smoke billowed from the damaged vehicles. Debris and body parts littered the road.

Kashmir experienced many car bombings from 2000 through 2005 which inflicted high casualties on Indian troops. The attacks forced Indian authorities to procure bombproof armoured vehicles for soldiers operating in Kashmir.

Indian soldiers are ubiquitous in Kashmir and local residents make little secret of their fury toward their presence in the Himalayan region.

India and Pakistan each claim the divided territory of Kashmir in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989.

Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.

About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.

The Associated Press