PAKISTAN: A lesser-known Kashmiri militant group, Al-Madina Regiment, claimed responsibility yesterday for firing grenades aimed at disrupting a political ceremony involving India's junior Foreign Minister Mr Omar Abdullah.
"Despite a security blanket, the attack was carried by our mujahideen [holy warriors\]," a spokesman for Al-Madina told most of the newspaper offices in Srinagar yesterday.
The same group claimed responsibility for an attack on Kashmir's Chief Minister Mr Farooq Abdullah, while he was inaugurating a government building in Srinagar on June 15th.
About a dozen rebel groups are battling Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority state where officials say more than 33,000 people have been killed since a rebellion broke out in 1989. Separatists put the toll near 80,000.
Mr Omar Abdullah (31), the son of Mr Farooq Abdullah, was installed yesterday as president of the ruling National Conference party at a heavily-guarded ceremony in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
"The grenades exploded 500 metres away from the venue of the ceremony. No damage was caused," a police official said.
Mr Abdullah was elected unopposed. His election came ahead of elections in Jammu and Kashmir scheduled for October. Many guerrilla groups have urged people to boycott polls.
More than 10,000 activists of National Conference attended the colourful ceremony at the venue in a field in Sonwar area of Srinagar. Witnesses said the grenade explosions did not disrupt the ceremony which was attended by Mr Farooq Abdullah and most of his ministers.
The regional pro-India National Conference party has ruled Kashmir for more than 35 years.
In fresh violence in the trouble-torn state, the Indian army shot dead five members of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group in two gunbattles on Saturday.
India, which has massed its army on the Pakistan border, accuses Islamabad of training and arming Muslim militants and pushing them into Indian Kashmir to fight New Delhi's rule.