Seven people including two activists of the provincial ruling party have been killed in separatist violence in the strife-torn northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, police said today.
Suspected separatist guerrillas shot dead a local president of the National Conference party in Pampore area on the outskirts of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, they said.
A senior National Conference activist in Budgam district, west of Srinagar, was also killed by militants.
Police said Indian security forces in Doda district, southeast of Srinagar, shot dead three separatist guerrillas in a gunbattle.
Two other militants have been killed in separate shootouts in the troubled region since Thursday evening, they added.
Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.
More than 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed in separatist violence in the Himalayan region since 1990.
