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Thursday, Jul 21, 2005

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Four killed in Kashmir blast

Shujaat Bukhari

Explosives-laden car hits Army vehicle outside school in Srinagar

TERROR ATTACK: Security personnel carrying the body of a jawan who was among the four killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Army vehicle in Srinagar on Wednesday. — PHOTO: AP

SRINAGAR: A day after the Commander of the Srinagar based 15 Corps, Lt. Gen. S. S. Dhillon, vowed to eliminate the militant leadership in Kashmir, a suspected suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into an Army vehicle in the high security zone of Sonwar outside the Burn Hall School on Wednesday morning.

Four persons, including three Army men, were killed and 16 injured but schoolchildren were not hurt. Police and defence sources said the suspected bomber, who was driving the car, hit the Army vehicle coming in the opposite direction at 9.10 a.m. "We saw an Army jeep thrown on the footpath. We could see at least one dead soldier whose head was severed. The civilian victims were lying in a pool of blood," said a witness.

The dead Army men were identified as soldiers from the Signal Corps, including Major Kapil Vinay. Four soldiers and 12 civilians were injured. The body of one civilian was identified as Naseer Ahmed.

This correspondent saw blood splattered everywhere and the mangled remains of the car. Chinar trees and the building housing the Life Insurance Corporation divisional office nearby bore the brunt. The windowpanes of most of the adjacent buildings were smashed. "We could only retrieve the engine of the car," said Hemant Kumar Lohia, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Central Kashmir range.

Eight vehicles parked outside the school were damaged.

The blast occurred close to the official residence of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice S N Jha. The houses of a dozen Ministers, the State police chief and other top officials are also located in the area.

The Hizbul Mujahideen denied it was a suicide attack. A spokesman of the outfit rang up a local news agency saying its cadres carried out the car bomb attack.

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