November 21, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 15, 1423

SRINAGAR, Nov 20: Militants killed a lawmaker’s brother and a police official in an attack in occupied Kashmir on Wednesday.

Ghulam Nabi Ganai, the elder brother of legislator Usman Majid, was shot dead in the village of Garoora, about 60kms north of Srinagar, a police spokesman said.

Three policemen were also injured in the shooting, which sparked panic in the village.

“The officer died on way to hospital,” the spokesman said.

Police and paramilitary reinforcements were sent to the area to search house-to-house for the killers.

Majid was elected to the held state’s assembly as an independent in the election that closed on Oct 8.

Majid had been a member of an anti-India group but later switched sides, first joining the pro-Indian militant group Ikhwan and later entering politics.

ARREST: India’s paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) claimed on Wednesday it had arrested three militants from the Lashkar-i-Taiba and Islamic Front.

One of the militants had crossed into occupied Kashmir from Azad Kashmir in September “after acquiring arms training in one of the camps”, a BSF spokesman said.—AFP