Eight people, including two freedom fighters were killed and more than 20 wounded when a gunfight broke out at a rally in the heart of occupied Srinagar on Sunday, police and witnesses said.
Police said attackers, one of them in police uniform, sneaked into a gathering of hundreds of Congress Party supporters in occupied Srinagar and opened fire.
"We eliminated two attackers," A.P. Maheshwari, Inspector General of the federal police force told Reuters.
"We suspect some others are hiding around," he said. "Though the firing has stopped, we are searching the area."
Four workers belonging to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party and two policemen also died after attackers fired automatic weapons and hurled grenades. Twenty others were wounded, including two senior police officers.
Singh condemned the attack, saying such attempts would not prevent efforts to bring peace to the disputed Himalayan region.
"The Prime Minister said that it is only through dialogue that a lasting solution can be found," a statement from his office said.
Singh said he would go ahead with a visit to occupied Srinagar on Wednesday, when he is due to take part in talks with Pakistan aimed at ending the two countries' bitter conflict over the Siachen glacier in the mountains of Kashmir.
Al-Mansoorian and Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack in a call to a local news agency. Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was to have addressed Sunday's rally but had not yet arrived when the gunfight erupted, prompting the huge crowd to scatter in panic.
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