Kashmir bomb explosion: several people wounded

A car bomb exploded on the outskirts of Indian Kashmir's main city Wednesday, injuring several people, police said. The Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, which has been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India, claimed responsibility in a call to a local news agency, saying the blast was a suicide attack.

The blast came on the day when the state's new chief minister was being sworn in. Police suggested the car, which was on a road when it exploded, may have been detonated by accident because there were no obvious targets nearby.

The explosion occurred on the outskirts of Srinagar, the summer capital of the Jammu-Kashmir state, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the site of the swearing-in ceremony.

Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan and more than 66,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the armed uprising in 1989.

India accuses Pakistan of aiding and arming the militants at training camps on the Pakistani side of Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies. Both India and Pakistan claim the divided Himalayan region in its entirety and have fought two wars over it, reports the AP. I.L.