13 Die, Dozens Hurt in Kashmir

A series of rebel bomb attacks and gunfights with security forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir left at least 13 people dead and dozens injured Wednesday, officials said.

Suspected insurgents triggered a small explosion that detonated a larger bomb in an abandoned car on a busy street in Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir state, said Hari Lal, an officer of the Central Reserve Police Force.

The blasts left three soldiers and three civilians dead and wounded 40 other people, Lal said. The explosions shattered windows in dozens of nearby buildings.

A person identifying himself as the spokesman for a Pakistan-based rebel group, Al Nasireen, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to a local news agency.

Separatist rebels have promised to continue fighting Indian forces; India and Pakistan have declared a cease-fire in Kashmir and are holding talks aimed at settling the decades-old dispute. Both countries claim the entire region, and the rebels want the Indian-held portion to join Pakistan or become independent.

In a separate clash, suspected rebels ambushed an army patrol in Chunti-Mulla village, about 45 miles north of Srinagar, killing two soldiers, police said.

Also Wednesday, suspected rebels shot dead a schoolteacher and a former militant in separate shootouts, police said.

Soldiers intercepted a group of rebels trying to cross the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir early Wednesday and killed three militants near the Tangdhar sector, military spokesman Lt. Col. V.K. Batra said.

Authorities say that nearly 160 rebels, including 38 commanders, have been killed in Indian Kashmir since January.