11 die in Kashmir as ministers escape landmine attack

SRINAGAR, Monday (AFP) Two senior state ministers in Indian Kashmir narrowly escaped a landmine blast which injured six policemen while 11 people died in militant violence in the revolt-wracked state, police said.

Rural development minister Peerzada Mohammed Sayeed and roads and buildings minister Ghulam Ahmed Mir missed the blast by seconds as their convoy passed a village near the northern town of Sopore, police said.

Six policemen, including a senior officer, travelling in an escort vehicle behind the ministers' cars were injured in the blast.

Sayeed is the head of India's ruling Congress party in the state, which is in the grip of an Islamic insurgency, and Mir is from the same party. Police said two more Congress legislators were travelling in the convoy.

Meanwhile seven militants were killed late Saturday and Sunday in three separate gunbattles in the southern districts of Anantnag and Pulwama and Baramulla in the north, a police spokesman said.

"All the three clashes erupted when troops laid siege to militant hideouts on a tip-off from intelligence sources," the spokesman said.