Grenade attack in Kashmir

Police carried out house-to-house searches after the attack

One person has been killed and two others injured in a grenade attack on the main government office in Indian administered Kashmir.

A newly-formed militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, has said it carried out the attack.

Sixteen people have also been killed in other incidents of violence across the state.

Police say more than a dozen rifle grenades were fired at the civil secretariat building in Srinagar from a nearby area.

Four grenades fell in three different places outside the secretariat, killing a civilian and injuring two others, including a policeman.

Three unexploded grenades were recovered from the premises of the fire service headquarters, located nearby.

Reports say the attack led to panic in the heavily fortified complex.

Police and paramilitary troops who were deployed around the complex fired in the air to scare away the militants.

Target

A spokesperson for the Jaish-e-Mohammad said the civil secretariat and the police headquarters building were the intended targets.

Jaish-e-Mohammad was set up by Masood Azhar

The group was set up by Maulana Masood Azhar, the Pakistani cleric freed during last year's Indian Airlines hijack.

Paramilitary forces cordoned off the area after the attack, and carried out a house-to-house search for suspects.

The BBC's Altaf Hussein in Srinagar says this is the third grenade attack on the civil secretariat in the past nine months.

Four government officials were killed in the previous two attacks that took place last year.

Jammu clash

The authorities say at least seven militants have been killed in two separate clashes in the Jammu border district of Rajouri.

Four those killed were described as being "foreigners".

Security forces also recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition from Rajouri as well as the border district of Poonch.

The army is describing the militant casualties as a major success for the security forces.

Separatists were said to have killed two members of a pro-India militant group in the Anantnag district.

They also killed three civilians in other parts of the state.

In a separate incident, suspected separatists attacked a 12-year-old-girl in Srinagar.

A passer-by standing next to her was also injured.

According to police, the girl was attacked by militants because she was wearing "figure-hugging trousers" which were seen as being un-Islamic.

It was not clear who carried out the attack.