Six policemen were killed and three others wounded today when their vehicle ran over a land mine in the strife-torn region of Kashmir, police said.
A police official said the explosion took place near the Beerwah area 30 kilometres west of Srinagar, the summer capital of the violence-ridden Jammu and Kashmir state.
"Three CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) personnel died on the spot and three others died in hospital," a police official said.
He said the vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast.
A spokesman for Kashmir's frontline militant group Hizbul Mujahideen called newspaper offices in Srinagar to claim responsibility for the attack.
The group, which favours Kashmir's merger with neighbouring Pakistan, called off a brief ceasefire in August after New Delhi turned down its demand to include the status of Islamabad in peace talks.
Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir.
Police said that earlier today security forces shot dead two separatist guerrillas in a gun battle in the same district.
Most of the militant groups have rejected an Indian ceasefire offer and have intensified attacks on security forces across the region since November.
Authorities say more than 30,000 people have been killed in separatist violence in the Himalayan region since the rebellion broke out in 1990.