The sound of gun shots and explosions
echoed through the centre of Srinagar
after gunmen opened fire in Lal Chowk,
the main square in the city's commercial district.
After a relatively quiet period in Kashmir,
there have been several recent attacks -
four soldiers were killed in an ambush
by militants last week.
But this latest attack is even more audacious,
right in the heart of
one of the most heavily policed cities in the world.
Violent separatist groups,
some of them backed by Pakistan,
have taken up arms against Indian rule
in Kashmir for 20 years.
The fighting is far less intense
than it was in the 1990s,
but a political solution to Kashmir's problems remains elusive.
So it's been a bloody start to the New Year
in this highly sensitive region,
which has been divided between India
and Pakistan for decades.
In another sign of the complexity of the conflict,
four Pakistani soldiers have been killed
by a suicide bomber
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
It's a worrying development
for the Pakistani authorities,
which suggests that Taliban militants
may be trying to expand their area of operations.