Senior officer killed in Kashmir

A senior Indian paramilitary officer has been killed in an explosion in Indian-administered Kashmir, police officials say.

Deputy inspector general of the Border Security Force OP Tanwar died when his vehicle was hit by a blast near a border post in Jammu.

Three soldiers accompanying him were also injured in the explosion.

Both India and Pakistan claim the disputed Kashmir region in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.

Officials said Mr Tanwar had gone to a border post in the Balad area to investigate reports about men trying to cross the border into Jammu.

This is the first time an official of the rank of a deputy inspector general has been killed in the Jammu region, the BBC's Binoo Joshi in Jammu says.

In September, Indian troops said they had shot dead five militants who had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) which divides the disputed region of Kashmir.

Seventeen militants and eight Indian soldiers were killed in a five-day-long gunbattle at Kupwara near the LoC in March.

The army says that more than 70 "infiltrators" crossed over into India from Pakistan this year, up from 45 in 2008.

Kashmir has been a flashpoint between the neighbours for more than 50 years and the scene of two of their three wars.

Muslim separatists have waged an insurgency since 1989.