Airport Attack in Kashmir Leaves 11 Dead

Eleven people were killed and a dozen wounded Tuesday in a gun battle that erupted after separatist militants tried to storm the high-security airport at Srinagar in Indian-held Kashmir, police said.

Six of the dead were guerrillas who, dressed in police uniforms, carried out the attack at the outer gate of the airport compound outside the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state.

Two civilians, one a teenage girl, and three airport security men died in the attack, an official said.

The Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of several organizations fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory, said a six-member suicide squad was responsible for the attack.

The attack on one of India’s most heavily guarded airports threw into doubt a tentative Indian bid to bring peace to the Himalayan region, where more than 30,000 people have died in 11 years of separatist rebellion, an official said.

“It does not jeopardize the peace process on the whole, but it does create question marks,” Junior Home Minister I. D. Swamy said. “If all these things continue, we will certainly have to rethink about it.”

India ordered a cease-fire in November, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir and later extended it for another month as a first step to restoring peace in the region. The unilateral truce ends Jan. 26.

Most militant groups have dismissed the truce as a ploy to win international sympathy.

An Indian paramilitary official said the militants had arrived at the outer gate of the airport compound in a jeep and fired indiscriminately at the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force.

“The security forces retaliated, and the gun battle continued for nearly 2 1/2 hours,” the official said.

A dozen reserve police personnel were wounded.

An airport official said flights were not affected by the attack. Witnesses said Indian soldiers were being deployed to step up security around the airport.