Bomb Kills 5 Herders in a Kashmir Village

A bomb explosion in a community herding ground killed five civilians and injured 12 others Tuesday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where separatist politicians have rejected talks with a government negotiator on the fate of the troubled Himalayan region.

In another incident, police in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, said soldiers and police killed 16 militants after surrounding two forest areas where guerrillas were believed to be present.

The police said no security forces were injured in the encounters.

Eyewitnesses and police said residents of the village of Khulgulshanpora were gathered early Tuesday to sell milk and put their cows out to pasture when a bomb hidden in a nearby wall along a dirt road exploded.

The blast killed “five villagers on the spot,” said P.K. Bhardawaj, a local police officer. Police said the explosive was apparently meant to target security forces who use the road.

No group claimed responsibility, but police suspected separatist militants, who have been fighting for 13 years for mainly Muslim Kashmir’s independence from predominantly Hindu India.

In other incidents in the region, nine paramilitary soldiers were wounded when their truck drove over a land mine in Lower Munda village, and a rebel was killed in a gunfight with soldiers in Kuthar village, police said.