SRINAGAR, India, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A top Indian official escaped an assassination attempt in Kashmir when Islamic rebels fired two rifle grenades at a public meeting, killing one person.
The grenades fell nearly 300 meters away from the dais where Indian-administered Kashmir chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was addressing a public meeting in Beerwah village Friday.
At least one person was killed and three others injured in the attack, officials said.
Security officials whisked away Sayeed, who returned to the public meeting within minutes.
Sayeed vowed to continue his crackdown against a 15-year-old separatist Islamic uprising in which nearly 38,000 people have died.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
More than a dozen odd Islamic rebel groups are fighting a bloody war seeking independence from Hindu-dominated India. The rebels want India's only Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir state to merge with neighboring Islamic Pakistan.
Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety. India blames Pakistan for arming and training Islamic militants, a charge Islamabad denies.
