JAMMU, July 20: Suspected freedom fighters overnight burst into a house in occupied Kashmir, lined up a trooper and four members of his family and gunned them down, police said on Tuesday. The attack took place in the border village of Gurdan, 150 kilometres northwest of Jammu, a police officer said.

The Kashmiris swooped on the village and barged into the house of former paramilitary Border Security Force trooper Abdul Gani, where they then carried out the killings, the officer said.

The dead include Gani and two women, he added. None of the groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area is known to be a stronghold of the Lashkar-i-Taiba. -AFP