Suspected Islamic militants kill four

Suspected Islamic militants raided the home of a police officer and gunned down his father, brother and two other relatives in troubled Kashmir, police said today.

The police officer was away on duty when the attackers struck last night in Surankot, a village 125 miles north west of Jammu, the winter capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state.

Two other relatives were wounded in the attack. The four killed and two wounded were all Muslims, police said.

The officer works for a counter-insurgency group of state police.

Insurgents have intensified attacks in the run-up to state legislature elections scheduled to be held next month and October.

More than a dozen militant groups, fighting for Kashmir’s independence or merger with Pakistan, have called for a boycott of the elections. They claim past elections have been rigged in favour of the pro-India ruling party.

India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic militants and pushing them into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir to fight a separatist war.

Pakistan denies the charge and says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the guerrillas.

The Britain, the US, Russia and the European Union have been trying to persuade India and Pakistan to resume dialogue to avoid war.

India says it will talk to Pakistan only after it stops supporting cross-border terrorism that includes providing training, arms, finance and refuge to terrorists who commit acts of terrorism in India and then go back to Pakistan.