Suspected Islamic militants yesterday triggered an explosion outside a bank in India's portion of Kashmir, killing one person and wounding 30, mostly civilians.

　　The bomb was planted on a bicycle parked outside a local branch of the State Bank of India in the town of Bandipora, about 60 kilometers north of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

　　Separately, one civilian died and six were wounded when suspected rebels hurled a grenade at a paramilitary truck passing through the village of Koimoh, 65 kilometers south of Srinagar. The grenade missed the target and exploded on the road, a police officer in Srinagar said.

　　Abu ahakir, spokesman for a little-known group called the al-Mansooriyan, claimed responsibility for the Bandipora attack and threatened to carry out more such strikes, in a call to a local news agency.

　　One of those injured in the Bandipora explosion died in the hospital, and the condition of seven others was reported to be serious, the officer said. The wounded in Bandipora also included five paramilitary soldiers who were on a patrol near the bank, he said.

　　It was not immediately clear if the paramilitary patrol was the intended target, he said. The area where the explosion occurred is a busy part of the town.

　　In other violence, an explosion in the Flood and Irrigation Control offices in Baramulla, north of Srinagar, damaged much of the single-story building, police said, and there were armed clashes elsewhere in Jammu-Kashmir between the security forces and suspected rebels.

　　In tral, a small town south of Srinagar, police said two members of the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, Kashmir's largest militant group, were killed in a gunbattle.

　　In a forest area in Kokernag, another suspected militant, who police said belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group, was killed by paramilitary soldiers.

　　More than a dozen guerrilla groups have been fighting security forces in Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir for the region's independence, or its merger with Islamic Pakistan. Since 1989, the conflict has killed more than 63,000 people, mostly civilians.