SRINAGAR, Feb 5: Twenty-three people were killed on Thursday in attacks across occupied Kashmir, officials said.

Nine Muslim militants and an Indian army officer were killed in a gunbattle in the Kupwara district, with three of the guerillas' bodies so charred they could not be recovered, police said.

The shootout came hours after four soldiers from the army's counter-insurgency wing, the Rashtriya Rifles, were killed when their bus ran over a landmine in the forests of the central Anantnag district, according to an army spokesman.

He said a further eight soldiers and two people operating the bus on contract were injured by the blast.

The province's largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, which wants occupied Kashmir to join Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the mine attack in a telephone call to media in Srinagar.

Elsewhere, suspected rebels shot dead three civilians, a bystander was killed in crossfire and five more militants were gunned down by troops, police said. Pakistan and India have fought two fully-fledged wars over Kashmir and came close to a third after suspected guerillas attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001.

Pakistan on Thursday observed Kashmir solidarity day, a public holiday held each year since 1994 under government sponsorship. A number of Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir used the occasion to thank Pakistan for its stance.

"Pakistan is the only country that is and has been whole-heartedly supporting the legitimate and principled struggle of Kashmiris," said Syed Ali Geelani, a leading hardliner who leads a breakaway faction of the main APHC.

More than 40,000 people have died in the uprising since 1989, according to official Indian figures. Freedom fighters and Pakistan put the death toll at between 80,000 and 100,000.-AFP