A policeman stands guard as a passenger train passes by after a blast in Kakpora, 25 km (15 miles) south of Srinagar April 2, 2010. Suspected separatist guerrillas blew up part of a railway track in Kashmir on Friday, the first such attack since a train service opened last year. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Suspected separatist guerrillas blew up part of a railway track in Kashmir on Friday, the first such attack since a train service opened last year.
The blast followed days of gunbattles between Indian troops and separatist militants in the region that killed at least 14 people.
“There were no casualties, as no trains were running when the militants set off a powerful bomb on the railway track,” Aijaz Ahmad, a police official said.
He said train services have been suspended. No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the explosion which took place in the Pulwama area in south Kashmir.
Kashmir valley’s first train chugs through rice fields and meadows from Qazigund area in the south to Baramulla in the north.
While resentment against New Delhi’s rule regularly erupts into protests in Kashmir, mainstream political parties in the state say building transport links and improving civic amenities is key to peace in the region.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full but rule in part and have fought two wars over the region, where officials say more than 47,000 people have been killed in over two decades of violence.
Nearly two feet of the rail route in Kashmir, India was blown up by militants near the Pulwama district, affecting train services from north to south Kashmir. The blast came a few days after militants fought with the Indian army in the area, thereby killing fourteen people.

"There were no casualties, as no trains were running when the militants set off a powerful bomb on the railway track," said Aijaz Ahmad, a local police official. He added that train services have been temporarily suspended. 

According to police, the attackers detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) near Galbug at about 10 PM local time (4:30 PM UTC), Thursday night. Two feet of the rail track on the Qazigund-Baramulla area was damaged. This track was developed two years ago, police sources stated. The attack came just before senior officers were supposed to inspect ongoing works in the Kashmiri railways. 

The track was repaired on Friday morning and train services resumed in the region. Kamal Saine, Deputy Inspector General of Police, south Kashmir, told the Press Trust of India agency that the damage to the track was not significant and it took a short time to mend it.