SRINAGAR, 14 September 2003 — Twenty-three people were killed in Kashmir, including four soldiers and a top counterinsurgent in the bloodiest day of fighting since the killing of a top rebel commander a fortnight ago, police said yesterday.

Four soldiers, including an officer, and a militant were killed yesterday in a suicide attack on an army camp in north Kashmir, police said.

The suicide attack that injured six more soldiers took place at 5:30 a.m. yesterday (0000 GMT) in Nowgam area, 100 kilometers north of Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, a police spokesman said.

One of the attackers was shot dead, while troops were yesterday combing the densely forested region to hunt down his accomplices, police said.

The army camp is very close to the disputed Line of Control (LOC) -- the de facto border which divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani administered regions.

Last week, Indian troops said they had killed five militants in the same area, foiling their bid to infiltrate Kashmir.

In another attack, three civilians were killed and 14 others injured, including two policemen when militants detonated a land mine on the main highway at Bijbehara, 50 kilometers south of Srinagar, police said.

The attack took place when an army convoy was passing on the highway. An army vehicle suffered some damage.

A former rebel commander, Mohammed Yusuf alias Kukkay Parrey, who broke ranks and joined Indian security forces to fight militancy in Kashmir was yesterday also killed in an attack on his motorcade, police said.

The attack, which also killed two of his associates and injured six others, took place in his home constituency Hajin, 40 kilometers north of Srinagar.

Yusuf led the Awami League, the political wing of Ikhwan — a pro-government militant organization which was formed in 1994 by Parrey to assist security forces in counterinsurgency operations.

Before joining politics in 1996, Yusuf headed Ikhwan. He was one of the top targets on the hit list of militants.

Elsewhere in Kashmir, security forces overnight shot dead 10 suspected militants in three different incidents, a police spokesman said.