Indian paramilitary troopers on patrol earlier this week in Srinagar, Kashmir, where where an attack on a convoy killed at least 12 Indian soldiers on Thursday (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA)

Srinagar (India) (AFP) – At least 16 Indian soldiers were killed on Thursday in Indian-administered Kashmir in the deadliest attack on government forces in more than two years, police said.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence. Rebels have been fighting for an independent Kashmir, or a merger with Pakistan, for 30 years.

The attack, the biggest since September 2016, saw an explosion next to a convoy of 78 vehicles carrying almost 2,500 personnel from the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), police said.

Two blue buses carrying around 35 people each bore the brunt of the explosion around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the main city of Srinagar on the main highway towards Jammu.

“At least 16 people are dead. Given the condition of the vehicles hit, the toll could get much higher,” a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported that more than 30 people were dead, and that many in the large convoy were returning from leave to active duty.

Police said that it was an improvised explosive device (IED) while the CRPF said that the explosives were inside a car. Media reports said the explosive-laden vehicle was driven into the convoy.

“It was a powerful explosion. The explosive was car-borne,” CRPF spokesman Sanjay Kumar told AFP.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, another CRPF official said at least 29 troops were injured in the blast, which damaged a number of vehicles in the convoy.

Unconfirmed photos showed the charred remains of at least one vehicle littered across the highway, alongside blue military buses as black smoke billowed upwards.

Reports said that there were 350 kilos (770 pounds) of explosives used.

Local media reports said the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist group had claimed responsibility.

A spokesman for the group told a local news agency that the “suicide attack” was carried out by Aadil Ahmad, alias Waqas Commando, a known militant from the area.

The last major car bombing, which killed 40 people including three suicide attackers, was also carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed, in 2001. The target of that attack was the local parliament building in Srinagar.

– ‘Not in vain’ –

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the latest attack was “despicable”.

“I strongly condemn this dastardly attack. The sacrifices of our brave security personnel shall not go in vain. The entire nation stands shoulder to shoulder with the families of the brave martyrs,” Modi said.

The 2016 attack, the biggest in 14 years, claimed the lives of 19 soldiers in a brazen pre-dawn raid by militants on the Uri army camp.

India blamed militants in Pakistan for that attack, and responded with strikes across the heavily-militarised Line of Control, the de-facto border dividing the nuclear-armed nations.

India said the “surgical strikes” several kilometres (miles) inside the Pakistan-controlled side of the disputed territory were to prevent attacks being planned on major Indian cities.

The operations remain a source of national pride for Modi’s government and were the subject of a rousing recent Bollywood film, “Uri: The Surgical Strike”.

The biggest attack on Indian forces was in May 2002, when militants attacked an Indian army camp in Kaluchak in Jammu city, killing 34 people, including family members of soldiers.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of fuelling the insurgency that has also left tens of thousands of civilians dead and which has become increasingly bitter in recent years.

Last year was deadliest in a decade, with rights monitors saying almost 600 people died, most of them civilians. Thousands more have been maimed in recent years by pellet-firing shotguns used by Indian forces.

Pakistan says it only provides diplomatic support to Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

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