Car bomb kills three in Indian Kashmir

Kashmir's main city on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding dozens, police said.

It was the third high-profile attack by militants fighting Indian rule in the region in as many days.

Wednesday's blast by a busy road outside the headquarters of the state-run Jammu and Kashmir Bank in the heart of Srinagar, was heard across the summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

The road, covered with fallen Chinar leaves, was littered with damaged vehicles, mangled steel with blood stains on them, footwear and pools of blood, witnesses said.

"Our house shook due to the blast and my daughter got scared," Habibullah Lone, a Srinagar resident who lives three km (two miles) away from the blast, said.

Police said Usman Majid, a provincial lawmaker, was among the 30 people wounded.

"I was working in the bank when suddenly there was a deafening sound and everything shook. My women colleagues started crying," Ishfaq Ahmad, a Jammu and Kashmir bank employee, said.

On Tuesday, Muslim militants threw a grenade and opened fire at a political rally in Indian Kashmir, killing four people and wounding at least 60, including a former state minister and two senior police officers.

A day earlier, militants had struck at a police picket and killed two federal troopers and three civilians. One militant was killed in the ensuing gun battle that lasted overnight.

Wednesday's attack came as India and Pakistan were set to open their fifth crossing point on their militarized frontier to allow relief for victims of the October 8 earthquake to flow across a ceasefire line.

More than 45,000 people have been killed in the Muslim separatist revolt in Indian Kashmir, the largely Hindu country's only Muslim majority state.

Despite the peace process between the two nuclear rivals, India says Pakistan has not done enough to stop anti-Indian Islamic militants operating from its soil.