(12 Aug 2000) English/Nat
XFA
Suspected Islamic guerrillas have wounded four women - two of them Hungarian tourists - in a grenade attack in Srinagar.
Tensions were already running high in the summer capital of the Indian-administered part of Kashmir after last week's car bomb attack in which 11 people were killed.
In the wake of that attack - and ahead of next week's independence day celebrations - security was stepped up throughout Kashmir and other parts of India.
No one has as yet claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack.
But it is thought that suspected Islamic guerrillas were behind the attack on a deeply revered Muslim shrine in Srinagar.
A Hungarian mother and her daughter suffered minor shrapnel wounds in the attack near the Hazratbal mosque.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The bomb was thrown toward us. I pulled my mother away and it went off."
SUPER CAPTION: Rita Anna, Hungarian tourist
The tourists were expected to recover.
Two Kashmiri women were also injured, one suffering serious wounds.
The grenade attack came two days after the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, Kashmir's main militant group, set off a powerful car bomb in Srinagar, killing 11 and wounding 19 others.
That attack was the first major action by the group after it called off its unilateral ceasefire, thus ending a tentative peace process.
In the wake of the car bomb, security in Srinagar was stepped up.
Police patrols were out on the streets, frisking pedestrians and checking cars for explosives.
Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan, has been the centre of an Islamic insurrection that has raged for 11 years, claiming some 25-thousand lives.
The militants want Kashmir to break away from India and remain independent or merge with Pakistan.
Since the violent separatist uprising began in Indian-ruled Kashmir in 1989, militant Kashmiris and Pakistan have accused Indian soldiers of widespread atrocities.
Right-wing Hindu protesters took to the streets of Delhi on Saturday in protest at the latest Kashmir violence.
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