Suspected Muslim militants set off a car bomb near a major bank in Indian Kashmir's main city on Wednesday, killing four people and wounding at least 60, police said.

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

Police said the bomb was aimed at a former state minister, Usman Majid, who was among the wounded.

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.

"I thought it was doomsday. I saw a lot of dust and smoke and everyone around me was bleeding and crying for help," Syed Altaf, a 50-year-old injured man said in hospital, his head bandaged and jacket covered with blood.

The road was littered with damaged vehicles, footwear and pools of blood, witnesses said.

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

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 attacked a police picket and killed two federal troopers and three civilians. One militant was killed in the ensuing gunbattle that lasted overnight.

Wednesday's attack came as India and Pakistan opened 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.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies November 17, 2005)