Candidate Survives Attack in Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir state’s tourism minister survived an assassination attempt and at least 14 people were killed Saturday in a surge of violence ahead of elections, Indian police said.

Sakina Itoo, tourism minister and a ruling-party candidate in state legislative elections, was on her way to a campaign stop south of the state’s summer capital, Srinagar, when her motorcade was hit by a remote-controlled bomb. Gunmen surrounded her car and opened fire, killing two bodyguards and a local resident, but Itoo survived, a police spokesman said.

It was the second attack on Itoo in less than a week, and came amid a spate of violence authorities blamed on Islamic separatists who have vowed to disrupt legislative elections in India’s only majority-Muslim state. She also survived a Sept. 15 attack on her motorcade.

Kashmiris go to the polls Tuesday for the second of four rounds of voting in September and October. India sees elections as a chance to defuse a separatist insurgency in Kashmir, but militants call the voting a sham.

Hours after the attack on Itoo, a worker with her National Conference party was killed in his home outside Srinagar.

In Kulgam, unidentified assailants gunned down a truck driver and his assistant. In nearby Badijalan, four suspected members of an outlawed Islamic militant group were killed in a gun battle with the army, a Defense Ministry official said.

Also, two suspected Islamic militants burst into an apartment complex for police families in a Srinagar suburb, killing one officer. Three other killings took place in Palpora and in Neelu.

India accuses Pakistan of training Islamic insurgents who slip across the border to attack Indian government targets. Islamabad denies the charge, saying it provides only moral and diplomatic support.