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Eight Hindu pilgrims die in Kashmir bomb blast
Agence France Presse
November 28, 1994 10:06 Eastern Time
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 400 words
HEADLINE: Eight Hindu pilgrims die in bomb blast
DATELINE: (RECASTS, ADDS details of attack)
BODY:
JAMMU, India, Nov 28 (AFP) - A bomb suspected to have been planted by
Moslem militants exploded Monday on a bus taking Hindu pilgrims to a famous
shrine in Kashmir, killing eight people and injuring 29 others, officials here
said.
The bomb went off about a kilometre (0.6 mile) from the high-security
residence of Kashmir Governor K.V. Krishna Rao on the outskirts of Jammu, winter
capital of the Himalayan state, a state government spokesman said.
The bus had set off from Jammu on a 50-kilometre (30-mile) journey to a
sacred Himalayan cave that Hindus revere as the abode of the goddess Mata
Vaishno Devi. More than three million pilgrims visit the shrine annually.
The blast was so powerful that it flung the bus into a gorge and set it on
fire.
Three pilgrims were killed instantly and five died in hospital. Seven of the
29 injured passengers, most of them women and children, were in critical
condition at the Jammu medical college hospital, doctors said.
Moslem guerrillas fighting for Kashmir's secession from India were the
main suspects in the blast, police sources said.
Sikh militants, whose fight for a separate homeland in the northern state
of Punjab has been on the wane for the past two years, also have a presence in
Jammu.
It was the sixth bomb explosion on a bus during the past three months in
Jammu and surrounding area. Seventeen people died and more than 100 were injured
in the previous incidents.
