India's capital Delhi is blanketed in toxic smog every autumn, but the pollution is already so bad that it's drawn protests as authorities tell students to stay home.

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) -- At least nine people were killed and 29 injured when a pile of confiscated explosives blew up at a police station in the Indian portion of Kashmir late on Friday, police sources said, days after a car blast in New Delhi killed eight people.

A car blew up near the historic Red Fort in India's capital New Delhi, killing at least eight people, police said, adding that the cause remained unclear.

The two deadly attacks are separate, and no evidence currently links the two. But for the two South Asian rivals, the political shockwave caused by the blasts are a stark reminder of the lingering security issues that fester below the surface throughout the region.

The move follows a weekend protest where police detained dozens of people demanding cleaner air, a rare public demonstration against pollution in the Indian capital.

At least eight people were killed in a car explosion on Monday near the historic Red Fort in a densely populated district of the Indian capital Delhi, a city police spokesperson said, though the exact cause of the blast is still being investigated.

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On the weather side, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 26.4 degree Celsius, which is 2.1 degree Celsius below normal, and a minimum temperature of 10.2 degree Celsius on Friday.