August 29, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 30, 1424

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SRINAGAR, Aug 28: Violence on Thursday marred a visit to Indian Kashmir by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and drew a warning from his deputy that it could affect India’s peace process with Pakistan.

The overnight storming of a hotel in the summer capital Srinagar by one rebel ended in bloodshed early Thursday.

Police said the militant was among four people dead after a gunbattle between rebels and security forces that started late Wednesday at the Greenway hotel. Eleven people were injured in the battle and an ensuing fire that engulfed the building.

The hotel is five kilometers from the venue of a conference chaired by Vajpayee and his deputy Lal Krishna Advani in the violence-wracked city.

The annual meeting of state ministers and top officials, which followed twin car bombs on Monday, focused among other issues on how to curb “terrorism.”

Police said the militant had rushed into the Greenway hotel after security forces prevented him from entering a nearby telegraph office.

Around 3:00 am Thursday, police bombarded the hotel with bullets and stormed into it at daybreak after freeing some 20 civilians trapped in other rooms.

The militant had lobbed grenades from the building, which houses offices of some small Urdu-language newspapers, Kashmir police chief Gopal Sharma said.

In the gunbattle, one-time rebel turned politician and journalist Javed Shah, his bodyguard and a Hindu civilian, were killed and five security force officials and two civilians were injured.—APP