SRINAGAR, JANUARY 3: At least 16 people, including four paramilitary personnel, were killed and 38 others wounded as militants blew up a hand-cart packed with explosives in a vegetable market in central Srinagar on Monday.The explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device fitted inside the hand-cart and apparently detonated through a timer device in the busy vegetable market area at Nand Singh-Arampora near Toto ground Army camp around 10 am, an official spokesman said here.He said ten people, two of them securitymen, died on the spot and scores of others were injured in the big explosion, which rocked the whole area. The injured were rushed to a hospital where six people, including two more security personnel, were declared brought dead, raising the number of those killed in the explosion to 16, the spokesman said.He said the casualty figure was likely to go up as the condition of most of the injured was stated to be critical. The spokesman said six paramilitary personnel were among the 20 people injured in the explosion, but hospital and security sources put the number of injured at 38.Thirteen people, who received minor injuries in the explosion, were discharged after first aid, while the remaining were undergoing treatment in different hospitals in the city. The spokesman said the militants detonated the explosive when the subzi-mandi, the main vegetable market of Srinagar, was crowded with people.Those killed included several shopkeepers, he said. The four securitymen killed were identified as S S Tomia and S Bariya of the special security branch and Delip and Basu Dass of the Border Security Force, he said.Official sources said security forces fired several rounds in self-defence immediately after the blast which caused panic in the whole area as shopkeepers and customers rushed to safer places leaving the dead and seriously injured behind.The blast was so powerful that it created a crater and damaged a number of shops, the sources said, adding security forces immediately sealed the entire area and launched a search to nab the culprits.No militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the blast so far. The Government has announced a relief of Rs 10,00 each for the injured, the spokesman said.
