SRINAGAR, March 19: At least two dozen people were wounded on Wednesday when suspected militants set off a powerful bomb in the heart of occupied Kashmir’s main city, police said.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the explosion, the first in five months, which took place near Jehangir Chowk, a busy area in Srinagar.

“Nearly 25 people have been treated in the hospital. One among the injured is serious,” Altaf Ahmad, a doctor in a Srinagar hospital, said.

Witnesses said the explosion shook the area and damaged several vehicles and window panes of nearby buildings.

Earlier on Wednesday soldiers shot dead four separatist militants in a fierce gunbattle in the Doda area of south Kashmir, police said. Violence has fallen across Kashmir recently but people are still killed in daily shootouts and occasional bomb attacks.—Reuters