5 killed in grenade attack at mosque in Indian Kashmir

Friday, November 10th 2006, 11:11 am

By: News On 6

SRINAGAR, India (AP) _ Suspected militants hurled a grenade into a crowd outside a mosque Friday in a village in Indian Kashmir, killing at least five people and wounding nearly 30, police officials and a doctor said.

The dead included two young girls and a boy, said Abdul Qayoom, a police officer.

The attack occurred as people were leaving Friday prayers in the village of Tahat, about 20 miles south of Srinagar, said Hemant Lohia, deputy inspector general of police.

The most seriously wounded were hospitalized in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Another grenade attack hit the main business center in Srinagar, wounding two paramilitary soldiers and one civilian, police officer Sajad Ahmed said.

Late Friday, a civilian driving an army vehicle was killed when militants attacked the jeep he was driving in Roucha, a village 50 miles north of Srinagar, said Viplab Kumar, a top police officer.

Kashmir has been at the heart of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan with both claiming it in its entirety. More than a dozen rebel groups are fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989.

More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the separatist groups, a charge Pakistan denies.