SRINAGAR, Aug 19: Ten people, including the chief of a militant group, were killed in occupied Kashmir on Thursday as President Abdul Kalam began a rare visit to the held state.

Manzoorul Islam, identified as head of the Jamiat-ul- Mujahideen, was in a car in Srinagar when the gun battle erupted after soldiers signalled the vehicle to stop. Another militant who was in the car escaped, a spokesman for the paramilitary Border Security Force said. "The killing of the chief is a big success," he said.

A senior Kashmiri leader dismissed Thursday's gunbattle as fake and said Islam had died in the custody of Indian forces a day earlier. "The killing has exposed the real face of the government," Mohammad Yasin Malik, chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, said in a statement. But he offered no evidence.

Militants and rights activists have frequently accused Indian troops, deployed in the tens of thousands in held Kashmir, of excesses. The Indian army denies large-scale abuse of human rights and says it investigates and punishes guilty soldiers. Security was tightened for President Kalam's day-long trip to inaugurate a university in Jammu and speak to engineering students in Srinagar. -Reuters