India-Kashmir-Blast
At least 20 people were injured, five of them seriously, when a bomb ripped through a bus stand in the highway town of Ramban this afternoon.

Most of those injured were civilian passengers.

"The explosion took place around 1305 hrs at general bus stand in which 20 people have reportedly been injured," Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ramban Range, H K Lohia told IRNA.

Security forces and police rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to the hospital, he said.

Ramban is located on the vital Srinagar-Jammu national highway, a 300 km long road linking Kashmir with rest of India.

The blast took place at the lunch time rush hour when the township was teeming with people mostly passengers.

Five seriously wounded have been rushed to nearby Banihal while police and security forces have cordoned off the blast site.

It was not yet clear who was the intended target of the blast.

The incident took place despite stringent security measures as thousands of Hindu pilgrims from all across India pass through it this time for annual pilgrimage to a cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas.

Earlier one person was killed in an explosion on the same highway near Awantipur last night.