A top militant commander blamed for 25 attacks and tourist killings has been arrested in India’s portion of Kashmir, in a major setback for the separatist rebels, police said today.

A suicide car bomb exploded on the outskirts of Indian Kashmir’s main city of Srinigar today, killing two policeman and three passers-by and wounding a dozen more people, police and hospital officials said.

Government forces today killed two suspected Islamic militants hiding in a shopping complex near the residence of India’s most senior elected official in Kashmir, ending a 24-hour stand-off, police said.

Indian troops set fire to a hotel in Kashmir’s summer capital today after a gun battle with Islamic guerrillas that left six people dead.