SRINAGAR, Feb 12 (2001) – Ten people including four Indian paramilitary personnel were wounded on Monday when suspected Muslim separatist rebels attacked a police patrol in a crowded street in revolt-racked Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
A police official said unidentified militants hurled a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force patrol in Pulwama town, 32 km (20 miles) south of Srinagar, the state’s summer capital.
The police vehicle was completely destroyed, the official said.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack which came despite a unilateral Indian ceasefire in the Himalayan state since November 28.
Most Muslim militant groups have rejected the government’s ceasefire and violence has spiralled in the disputed territory in the last week.
On the weekend nine people were killed in a gunbattle and 15 people were burnt to death in a village 175 km (110 miles) north of Jammu, the winter capital.
Some 30,000 people have been killed since the separatist rebellion began in India’s only Muslim-majority state nearly 11 years ago.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Kashmiri separatists, a charge Pakistan denies.
Police said in a statement Indian border guards had arrested 10 Muslim boys near the border as they were trying to cross over into Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Some young Muslim men from Kashmir go to rebel camps in Pakistan for military training, India says.
India controls 45 percent of the disputed region, Pakistan rules over a third of Kashmir and China the rest.
