Rebels blow up rail track in India-administered Kashmir

Srinagar, Kashmir - Separatist militants have blown up a section of railway track in India-administered Kashmir, officials said Friday.

Police said there were no trains running when the militants detonated a bomb in the Pulwama district, 40 kilometers south of state capital Srinagar.

There were no casualties in the attack.

"Late Thursday night the rebels carried out the blast, blowing off up to three feet of rail track," Pulwama's senior police official Kifayat Haider told reporters.

"Train services on the route have been suspended and are expected to resume only by Friday evening after the repair work is completed," he added.

This is the first time the militants have targeted the train service since it started operations in the Kashmir valley in October 2008.

The attack came at a time when senior railway officials were due to arrive in Kashmir to review the rail network in the region.

The ongoing railway project, began over a decade ago, aims to link Kashmir to the rest of India.

Kashmir's secessionist insurgency has claimed more than 45,000 lives since the late 1980s.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316846,rebels-blow-up-rail-track-in-india-administered-kashmir.html.