HIGHLIGHTS: Attack Likely to Stoke Tensions Between the Nuclear-Armed Neighbours, India & Pakistan||No One Claims Responsibility for Attack Also Injuring 20 Others||Injuries in Pakistan Included 7 Germans, 3 Austrians & 3 Pakistanis|| STORY: Gunmen disguised as Hindu holy men shot dead at least 24 civilians, including a child, in a mainly Hindu slum in Indian Kashmir Saturday, Indian police said. The attack is likely to stoke tensions between neighboring nuclear powers India and Pakistan, locked in a military standoff for more than six months over the disputed Himalayan region that has raised fears of war. (Read photo caption)

Five men opened fire near a makeshift Hindu temple in Jammu -- Jammu and Kashmir State's winter capital -- in the evening attack before fleeing. The army has launched a manhunt.

At least 12 women were among the dead and 20 people were injured, police said, adding the toll was likely to rise.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the killings and there was no independent confirmation it was carried out by Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir.

At least a dozen groups are fighting Indian rule in the state, which covers about 45 percent of Kashmir. Pakistan controls another third of Kashmir and China the rest.

Explosion in Pakistan Injures 13

In Pakistan, an explosion Saturday possibly caused by a grenade injured about a dozen people, most of them German tourists, at an archaeological site in northern Pakistan, officials said. No one was seriously hurt.

Authorities said the incident occurred in Mansehra, about 170 miles north of Peshawar. The area is on the ancient Silk Road between China and Europe and is rich in archaeological and culture sites.

Police said the blast occurred as about 21 tourists were leaving their van to view ancient inscriptions associated with the 3rd Century B.C. Mauryan emperor Ashoka when the blast occurred.

Police said the injured included seven Germans, three Austrians and three Pakistanis. In Islamabad, the Interior Ministry listed seven Germans, one Austrian, one Slovene and three Pakistanis.

The tourists were headed to Islamabad under police escort and it was impossible to clarify the difference. The government-run news agency quoted Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema as saying that all the injured had been treated at an area hospital and released.

Officials said they were uncertain what caused the blast, but the news agency quoted a senior Interior Ministry official as saying it was likely caused by a crude explosive device thrown at the tourists. Small grenades are sold openly in parts of Pakistan.

Police said they had brought an undisclosed number of people in for questioning and were interviewing witnesses.

A June 14 car bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi killed 12 Pakistanis and injured 50. On May 8, a suicide bomber killed 11 French engineers and two other people in front of the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi. On March 17, a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad killed the attacker and four others, including two Americans.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Indian policeman moves people away while standing beside the dead body of an unidentified man in Jammu city, the winter capital of the state of Kashmir July 13, 2002. At least 24 civilians, including a child, were killed in the disputed Indian-controlled region in an attack on a slum by Islamic militants disguised as Hindu holy men, police said. (Munish Byala/Reuters)