A bomb blast in Indian Kashmir has killed at least one person and injured 13 others

Srinagar (India), March 9 Official sources say at least one person was killed and thirteen others were injured in an explosion this Wednesday near a government office and a court in Indian Kashmir, the cause of the incident is being investigated. The blast took place near the office of the tax collector and magistrate in Udhampur, the capital of the district of the same name in the Indian region of Jammu. “One person died and thirteen were injured (taken to hospital),” Singh said, adding that “the exact cause and origin of the explosion are being investigated … it is too soon to come to a definite conclusion.” Eyewitnesses, who did not want to be named, told Efe that the blast occurred at about one in the afternoon (7:30 GMT), where there was a market in a bustling area. “The market in the Salatia Chowk area of ​​Udhampur has been cordoned off by police and security forces,” said a resident of the area. Udhampur Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar told a news conference that an investigation was underway into the cause of the blast. The incident comes three days after a grenade attack on a security forces vehicle in the region’s main city of Srinagar killed two civilians and injured 25 others. The disputed territory is a scene of frequent clashes between various armed groups, the independence of the region or its affiliation with Pakistan and the frequent clashes between Indian security forces. Indian-administered Kashmir has witnessed three decades of armed independence insurgency, described by New Delhi as a terrorist massacre that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989, most of them civilians. After the British decolonization, after the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Pakistan disputed territorial sovereignty with India, and waged three wars and several minor conflicts. In the latest major incident between the two nuclear powers, at least twelve people were killed and thirty wounded in a gun battle between the Line of Control (LoC, in English, the practical border separating the two countries in the disputed territory). India and Pakistan have accused each other of inciting enmity following New Delhi’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status in August last year.EFE sa-daa / igr / jgb