Kashmir blast kills three

By Altaf Hussain
BBC correspondent in Srinagar

Police in Indian administered Kashmir say three people have been killed and another 20 wounded in a bomb explosion in the border town of Rajouri.

The region has seen an upsurge of violence in the last three weeks

The explosive material was planted in a video-cassette recorder abandoned outside a shoe shop.

A senior officer of India's premier intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (Raw), was apparently the target of the militants and is among those killed.

There has been a sudden upsurge in separatist violence across the state over the past three weeks.

Indian authorities say that Pakistan has stepped up its efforts to push armoured infiltrators into the Indian side of the Line of Control that divides Jammu and Kashmir between the two countries.

They say Indian troops have foiled at least 18 infiltration bids by the militants so far this month.

Mutual blame

India has ruled out bilateral talks with Pakistan unless the latter stops abetting separatist violence in Indian-administrated Kashmir.

Pakistan on the other hand says that India has not been doing much to carry forward the peace process launched by prime minister Vajpayee last April.

The Line of Control has lately witnessed increased exchanges of fire between the armies of the two countries.

Police in Srinagar say three civilians were killed and three more were wounded in Pakistani shelling across the line of control in Gurez sector on Saturday evening. More than a dozen shops have been damaged.

The two armies have always blamed each other for initiating the clashes.