Ten killed, including boy, in Kashmir violence

Ten people including a 12-year-old boy were killed and 32 others wounded today in explosions and shootouts across strife-torn…

Ten people including a 12-year-old boy were killed and 32 others wounded today in explosions and shootouts across strife-torn Kashmir.

Two people including the boy were killed and 32 were wounded when unidentified separatist militants threw a grenade at a crowded bus stand in Kupwara town northwest of Srinagar.

Many of the wounded suffered serious injuries, a police official said.

Later today, an Indian soldier was killed when militants set off a landmine in neighbouring Karnah in north Kashmir.

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No group has claimed responsibility for either of the blasts.

Elsewhere seven people, including three separatist militants and a senior activist of Kashmir's ruling National Conference Party, were killed in separate shootouts, police said.

India called off a six-month suspension of hostilities against rebels in Kashmir last week but twinned that with an invitation to Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf to attend a summit in New Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The Pakistani leader agreed to the talks.

Police say nearly 100 people including 63 separatist guerrillas and 17 Indian security force personnel have been killed since the ceasefire was lifted.

Officials say more than 30,000 people have been killed in separatist violence in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state since the rebellion began at the end of 1989.