A powerful bomb blast killed five soldiers and two civilians riding in a bus in Indian-administered Kashmir on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
Three other army soldiers and two civilians were wounded by the land mine explosion at Hangalpawa town, in Anantnag district, 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar.
The explosion destroyed the bus, blowing some of the victims to pieces and leaving a huge crater on the edge of the road, officials said.
The blast took place shortly after an army contingent boarded the bus near Ashmuqam town. The bus travelled another 12 kilometres (seven miles) when it went over the land mine, the officials said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Senior police and civil officials rushed to the spot. The area around the blast was sealed and a search launched to arrest those involved in the attack.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir since the start of a Muslim insurgency in 1989.
Suspected Muslim militants earlier triggered two separate blasts in Indian Kashmir, injuring five people including two soldiers.
Three people were injured in a blast inside a bus at a bus terminal at Rajouri, 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of Kashmir's winter capital Jammu.
Police sources said the hardline militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba was the prime suspect.
In Kathua district, 175 kilometres (109 miles) south of Jammu, an army vehicle was blown up by a time bomb injuring two Indian soldiers, police said.
The attacks came a day after two Hindu priests were found murdered in a Kashmiri temple, police said. Their throats had been slit in Surankode town in Poonch on Monday night -- SRINAGAR, India (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
