INDIA-PAKISTAN: A senior separatist Kashmiri leader was assassinated at a rally in the state's summer capital, Srinagar, yesterday further raising tensions between India and Pakistan.
Eyewitnesses said Mr Abdul Ghani Lone, a leader of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, a coalition of 23 Muslim political parties and social groups campaigning against Indian rule in Kashmir, was shot dead by two masked men dressed in police uniforms.
One of Mr Lone's security guards also died in the attack and another has been admitted to hospital with serious bullet injuries.
Reports from Srinagar said the gunmen rolled a grenade, which didn't explode, into the crowd, before escaping in the confusion. Police said they had no clue about the gunmen's identity.
Lone, who was considered a moderate among separatist leaders, favouring dialogue with the federal government and the holding of elections to find a political solution to the 55-year-old Kashmir dispute, was sitting on a platform in front of a crowd of 5,000 when the assassins struck.
Officials said the attack took place as the ceremony, commemorating the 12th anniversary of the assassination of a Kashmiri independence leader, was about to end and a fracas broke out between Lone's supporters and those shouting pro-Pakistani slogans. Lone had survived numerous attempts on his life over the past five years. His murder came as the Indian prime minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, arrived in the state's winter capital, Jammu, at a time when tensions with Pakistan are running high, following last week's attack on an army camp in which 31 people including 11 children and 11 women were killed.
India has blamed Pakistan for the attack and the two armies engaged in artillery, mortar and machine-gun duels for the sixth consecutive day across the border. Nearly 20 people on either side have been killed in the firing.
Around one million troops were mobilised by Pakistan and India along their border last December following an assault on the Indian parliament that Delhi blames on Islamabad. India holds Pakistan responsible for sponsoring Kashmir's 13-year-old "proxy war" that has claimed over 35,000 lives, a charge that Islamabad denies.
Mr Vajpayee will spend three days in Kashmir, where he is due to meet political leaders ahead of state elections later in the year. He will also chair a meeting of the Unified Headquarters that comprises army commanders, security and intelligence officials who plan anti-terrorist strategy in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, in feverish diplomatic moves, the US urged the nuclear rivals to keep communication channels open and confirmed that the US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Richard Armitage, would be visiting South Asia to try and calm the situation.
The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, called on India and Pakistan to "exercise maximum restraint to avert a further escalation of tensions".
The EU's External Affairs Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, is also visiting Islamabad and Delhi this week to try and avert a conflict.
Fears that the two countries were headed for war led to a sharp fall in India's stock market with traders and dealers at the country's largest Bombay Stock Exchange, off-loading shares. One dealer said selling was aggravated by reports that the army's deployment in riot-struck western Gujarat state was over and troops were returning to the Pakistan border.
Around 4,000 soldiers were rushed to Gujarat in early March to stem rioting in the state's largest city, Ahemdabad, where over 950 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim clashes.