SRINAGAR, Oct 18: Held Kashmir’s junior education minister, Ghulam Nabi Lone, was shot dead in a raid on his home by militants on Tuesday in the region’s main city of Srinagar, police said.

“He is dead ... when a suicide attacker stormed into his official residence”, a senior police officer said.

Tuesday’s attack comes as authorities struggle to provide relief and shelter to thousands made homeless by the devastating earthquake that hit the region on Oct 8.

Police said an unspecified number of militants scaled the wall of the 53-year-old minister’s house from an adjoining house belonging to a communist lawmaker in the Kashmir assembly and one of them shot Lone.

After shooting Lone, the militants threw grenades at police guards, killing two policemen and wounding a civilian, they added.

One militant was killed when police returned fire. A police officer said shots were still being exchanged in the area near Srinagar’s civil secretariat.

Scores of policemen have surrounded the high-security area where lawmakers, bureaucrats and ministers live.

In 2002, Indian Kashmir’s junior interior minister, Mushtaq Ahmed Lone, was killed by militants during an election campaign for the state assembly.

—Reuters