India tightened security in the Kashmir capital Srinagar on Friday, following a militant car bomb attack that killed 12 people the day before.
Most shops, schools and businesses in the city were closed, and there was little traffic on the roads, amid a one-day strike called by a pro-government militant group to protest against Thursday's bombing.
"We called the strike to protest this cowardly act carried out by those opposed to peace in Kashmir," said Jayed Shah, who heads the National Security Organisation (NSO).
Witnesses said NSO activists, armed with sticks, were patrolling areas of Srinagar to ensure local people heeded the group's strike call.
Police and paramilitary security troops were out in force throughout Srinagar and other major Kashmiri cities.
Pedestrians in Srinagar were stopped and frisked at police checkpoints, while private cars were pulled over and searched for weapons or explosives.
The site of Thursday's car bomb, near a branch of the State Bank of India in central Srinagar, was still cordoned off.
The dominant Kashmiri militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, which called off a 15-day cease-fire on Tuesday, claimed responsibility for the attack, which began just after midday when a grenade was thrown at security guards near the entrance to the bank compound.
Some 15 minutes later, when security reinforcements and journalists had rushed to the area, a large explosive device hidden in a white Ambassador car was triggered, causing widespread devastation.
Most of the dead were local policemen. A New Delhi-based newspaper photographer was also killed, and 10 other journalists were injured, some of them seriously.
The bank, where Indian soldiers serving terms of duty in Kashmir pick up their pay, has been targeted in the past, and shopkeepers in the area said it was time the city administrators took action.
"We have appealed to the authorities umpteen times that the bank should be shifted to a safer place. But they did nothing, despite three bomb blasts there since 1995," said local storeowner Ali Mohammed.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said the attack was planned in Islamabad by Pakistan's ruling military regime led by General Pervez Musharraf.
"This is yet another example of Islamabad's sustained campaign of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and other parts of India," Vajpayee said in a statement.
The blast "is an act of terror planned and executed at the behest of Pakistan," he added -- SRINAGAR, India (AFP)
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