SRINAGAR, May 10: Unidentified men shot dead three activists of occupied Kashmir’s ruling party and four other Muslims believed to have worked with Indian forces, including a couple, police said on Saturday.

Another activist of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was seriously injured in the Friday night attacks, which coincided with the arrival of US envoy Richard Armitage in New Delhi.

The gunmen opened fire on party activists Ghulam Mohammed Mehrab and Bashir Ahmed Ganai in the Bijbehara township of Anantnag district, a police spokesman said.

Mr Mehrab, a distant relative of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, died on the spot, while Ganai was injured and shifted to the main hospital in Srinagar.

Both men hailed from Bijbehara’s Ganai Mohalla area, the site of Mufti Sayeed’s ancestral residence.

Police said the gunmen later went to a neighbouring locality and shot dead two more PDP officials. Indian forces have launched a search for the assailants.

Workers of the PDP, which formed government in November, have been increa-singly targeted since the party organized a rally in Srinagar to welcome Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on April 18.

Since Mr Vajpayee’s speech, at least seven PDP activists have been killed and a senior minister, Muzaffar Beigh, has escaped two attempts on his life.

Many others have announced their resignations from the party through newspapers.

In other incidents, gunmen shot dead four Muslims who “were suspected of working for security forces”, the police spokesman said.

Three militants, two of them “senior commanders” of the Al Badr militant group, were killed in two separate gunbattles in the Rajouri district, police said.

A couple, Mohammed Shafi Mir and Zaitoon Begum, were shot dead in Bandipora, 60kms north of Srinagar, while two other Muslims, Qadoos Ahmed and Tariq Ahmed, were killed in the Kupwara and Budgam districts. —AFP