Islamic militants have killed at least eight Hindus and wounded 23 others on an annual pilgrimage in Indian Kashmir, police said.
The militants struck while the victims were sleeping in tents near Pahalgam, the base camp for pilgrims heading for a cave shrine in the Himalayas.
The militants hurled grenades and attacked with automatic weapons fire, a police official told Reuters. The firing lasted about an hour, one of the victims said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the most serious against the month-long Amarnath pilgrimage to the cave shrine since it began on July 19th, police said. Hindus believe the shrine to be the abode of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
Last week, two people, including a Hindu pilgrim, were killed and four devotees wounded when militants hurled a grenade along the pilgrimage route.
The pilgrimage has been a frequent target of guerrilla attacks since the separatist revolt erupted in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989. Last year, Muslim guerrillas killed 29 people in two attacks on the pilgrimage.
Indian authorities have deployed a 12,000-strong security force along the 240-mile pilgrimage route for fear of attacks by Muslim rebels.
Kashmir is at the heart of a military standoff between nuclear-armed rivals Indian and Pakistan. New Delhi is fighting a separatist revolt against its rule in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.