One dead as soldiers storm Kashmir hotel, two killed in attack on rally

SRINAGAR, Wednesday (AFP) A militant was killed and another arrested when police stormed a hotel to end a two-day siege that began with a deadly rebel attack on a security post in the Indian Kashmir summer capital Srinagar, police said.

Elsewhere in the insurgency-racked state, two people were killed and 60 wounded after militants launched a gun and grenade attack on a political rally.

"The operation in Lal Chowk is over. We have killed one militant and arrested another," said state police chief Gopal Sharma of the stand-off in Srinagar.

Heavily-armed rebels had attacked a federal police post in the central market square of Lal Chowk on Monday, killing two policemen and two civilians.

The militants then escaped to a nearby hotel and exchanged fire with police from Monday until the Tuesday afternoon raid by police.

Seventeen people were wounded including Japanese photojournalist Takeshi Sakuragi, Sharma said. Police said Sakuragi, shot in the jaw while photographing the gunfight, was in serious condition.

Senior officer Javed Maqdoomi told reporters that police had evacuated more than 70 people including tourists from hotels before launching the assault.

Sharma identified the arrested militant as Aijaz Ahmed Bhat, alias Abu Samana, of the Pakistani city of Faisalabad.

"He had infiltrated into (Indian) Kashmir recently," Sharma said, adding he was a member of the hardline Lashkar-e-Taiba - a militant group that is also being blamed for New Delhi blasts last month that killed 62 people.

Militants have been waging a separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir since 1989 in a conflict that has claimed more than 44,000 lives.

There are several security posts in the square which rebels have attacked in the past. Much of Srinagar's commercial area was reduced to rubble in 1992 during a fierce clash.

The rally attack was launched the same day in the town of Tangmarg in Baramulla district, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Srinagar, as former state tourism minister Ghulam Hassan Mir finished a speech.

Police said Mir was slightly injured. He is a senior member of the People's Democratic Party which handed over power in the state to the Congress party this month as part of a coalition deal.

More than 40 of the injured were taken to Srinagar's main hospital for treatment, police said. They said eight of the injured were officers guarding the rally.