Grenade attacks in Kashmir kill two people, wound 58

SRINAGAR, India -- Suspected Islamic militants exploded two grenades in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday, including one at a busy bus station, killing two people and injuring at least 58, police said.

In the attack at the bus station, the militants apparently were targeting a paramilitary police post, but the grenade missed and exploded near the station where scores of people were waiting to board buses, an official said.

At least 52 people were injured in the grenade attack in the Batmalloo suburb of Srinagar, said Tirath Acharya, spokesman of the paramilitary Border Security Force.

One person died from wounds suffered in the explosion while four of the injured people were in serious condition, Acharya said.

An hour later, suspected militants hurled a grenade in Anantnag town, 35 miles south of Srinagar, killing one person and injuring seven others, police said. The explosion occurred in the town's main square.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Srinagar is the summer capital of the northern Indian state of Jammu-Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim.

Elsewhere in Kashmir, Islamic rebels were holding 12 villagers hostage in a house in Tharyun, a village about 45 miles south of Srinagar, an army officer said.

Five of the hostages were village elders whom paramilitary soldiers sent into the house to try to persuade the militants to surrender, said Maj. Mukesh, who uses only one name. The seven other hostages lived in the house.

"We have tried to speak to the people inside, and have made announcements on a megaphone to demand that the militants release the civilians," Mukesh said.

Soldiers surrounded the house, and there was intermittent shooting with the four gunmen inside, he said.

As dusk fell, soldiers rigged up high-powered lights around the house to prevent the militants from escaping under the cover of darkness, said Vipul Kumar, district police superintendent.

"There is no immediate plan to storm the house because we want to ensure the safety of civilians trapped inside," he said.

Indian forces frequently use civilians as negotiators in Kashmir, sending them into such hostile situations to negotiate with militants.

More than a dozen Islamic militant groups have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989, seeking independence for Kashmir or its merger with Muslim-dominated Pakistan.

India accuses Pakistan of funding and training the militants in a "proxy war." Pakistan says it supports the militants' cause, but denies giving them material aid.