SRINAGAR: Suspected militants killed on Sunday two policemen guarding the home of a politician in India-held Kashmir in the first such attack in the region since general elections got underway, police said.

Two militants sprayed bullets towards the home of the pro-India politician who was inside, meeting party workers in the town of Khrew, 25km south of Srinagar, an officer and a party official said.

“The two policemen died before reaching hospital,” the officer at the scene said.

The attack sparked a gunbattle with security forces on patrol in the area that left both of the militants dead, the officer said.

Yawar Masoodi, a youth leader of the National Conference which rules at state level in the disputed Himalayan region, and the party workers were unharmed.

The militants fled into nearby mustard fields after snatching the police officers’ weapons. Security forces chased them, sparking the gunbattle as reinforcements from a nearby army camp moved in, the officer said.

“Both the attackers were later neutralised and the snatched weapons also recovered,” Inspector General Nalin Prabhat from the federal Central Reserve Police Force said.

At the time of the attack, Masoodi was in a “closed door meeting” with party workers discussing election campaign plans, said National Conference spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu.

“These two individuals arrived at the gate. On being stopped for frisking by the police guards, they suddenly took out weapons from under their ferans (traditional Kashmiri tunic),” Mattu said.

It is unclear why Masoodi, who is not an elected member of parliament nor standing in the polls, was singled out for attack. Militants have long fought for independence or for merger of the territory with Pakistan.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, also from the National Conference party, said the attack highlighted security concerns for all politicians in the region. The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead in the past 25 years.

“The attack on Yawar’s residence is evidence of the continued risk associated with being a mainstream politician in Kashmir,” Abdullah said on Twitter.

The district in the Kashmir Valley where the attack took place will go to polls on April 24 as part of the mammoth elections that are staggered over six weeks.—AFP