7 militants killed:

Parcel bomb kills three in held Kashmir

SRINAGAR: A Muslim man, his daughter and son were killed in a “gift” bomb explosion while troops shot dead seven rebels in separate clashes in Indian Held Kashmir, police said Friday.

The explosion occurred in the house of Mohammed Sayeed, 45, late Thursday in the southern Kashmir town of Bijbehara, a police spokesman said. “Sayeed and his two children died on the spot while his wife was seriously injured,” the spokesman said. The son was aged 20 while the daughter was 22.

Police said they were mystified why the family was targeted, as they had no political affiliations.

An unidentified person delivered the wrapped gift earlier in the day and when the family “started opening it there was an explosion,” the police spokesman said.

The fresh violence came after a mother and daughter died and 50 people were injured, many of them school children, Thursday, in an Islamic rebel grenade attack in the Himalayan state’s summer capital Srinagar. The rebels hurled a grenade at a security vehicle but missed, and the device exploded outside the gates of a missionary school.

It was the second rebel attack in two days in Srinagar, urban hub of a 15-year revolt against New Delhi’s rule. On Wednesday, two people died and 34 were injured when militants detonated a car bomb in a commercial district. The two explosions in Srinagar also came after the state capital shifted its operations here from Jammu, the winter capital, on Monday. On Friday, more than 1,000 students from army-owned schools chanting “we want peace” and “end the violence” protested in front of Srinagar’s small UN military observer’s office, witnesses said.

The observers are here to monitor any ceasefire violations along the de facto border dividing the Indian and Pakistani armies. Troops also shot dead seven rebels in separate clashes, police said. Three rebels died in southern Anantnag district while four were killed in northern Baramulla and Kupwara districts. afp

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