Two killed in blast in Pakistani Kashmir

December 7, 2000
Web posted at: 2:48 AM HKT (1848 GMT)

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) -- Two men were killed and 15 injured by an explosion on Wednesday at a busy market in the Pakistan-ruled part of Kashmir.

Officials blamed neighbouring India for what they called a "terrorist act."

Police first reported one death in the blast in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-controlled part of the disputed Himalayan region, but later said another injured man had died in hospital.

State Prime Minister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry blamed India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency for the explosion.

The official APP news agency quoted him as saying RAW agents had set off a similar deadly blast in another town of the territory last year during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"After one year, it has repeated this act of terrorism which has exposed their real motives and nefarious designs," he said.

State Senior Minister Mohammad Ishaq Zafar also blamed India for what he called a "terrorist act."

He said the explosion near a fruit shop in Muzaffarabad town could have been caused by a bomb, although police said they had not yet found any evidence.

Pakistani officials often blame bomb blasts in their country on the intelligence agencies of arch-rival India, which in turn blames Pakistani agencies of similar acts there.

India rules about 45 percent and Pakistan just over a third of Kashmir, over which the two countries have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. China holds the rest of the territory.

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