Suspected militants on Wednesday opened fire in the main market area of Indian Kashmir's summer capital occupied Srinagar, killing at least one police officer and sending residents ducking for cover. Police said one or two gunmen had taken up positions in a city centre hotel which was quickly surrounded by heavily armed members of the security forces.
"We are trying our best to evacuate people," a police officer at the scene told AFP. Three civilians were reported injured in the fighting. Local resident Joginder Singh said the gunmen appeared to be directing their fire at a paramilitary camp near the hotel in occupied Srinagar's busy Lal Chowk district.
A militant group, Jamiat-ul-Mujahedin, said it was behind the assault. "Three of our men have launched a fidayeen (suicide) attack in Lal Chowk," the group's spokesman Jameel Ahmed told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. Wednesday's assault came as Indian Kashmir's chief minister marked his first year in office by pledging to slash the security force presence in the revolt-hit Muslim-majority region if militant violence continued its recent downwards trend.