SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI, 3 February 2004 — Suspected gunmen killed a senior police officer in Indian Kashmir as he left a mosque yesterday after offering Eid prayers, police said.

Save Kashmir Movement — a little known group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mohammed Amin Bhat, a deputy inspector general of police, was leaving a mosque on the outskirts of the state summer capital, Srinagar, when the gunmen opened fire at him, a police official said. “Bhat was taken to the SMHS hospital where he died,” Senior Superintendent of Police (Srinagar) Syed Javed Mujtaba Gilani said.

“It is clearly the handiwork of militants,” said another police official, who wished to remain unnamed. It was the first attack against a senior security force official since moderate separatists and Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani held landmark talks in New Delhi on Jan. 22 and called for an end to violence in the Himalayan region.

The gunmen escaped as the crowd who were celebrating the Eid scattered in panic. Bhat was hit by three bullets.

“After hitting Bhat, the gunmen managed to flee from the scene,” the police official said.

Another senior police officer, Bashir Ahmed Dar, was also leaving the mosque when the attack took place. He was unharmed. The police officers’ security guards could not retaliate against the gunmen as the area was packed with worshipers.

Police, backed by security forces, have launched a major search to find the killers, the police official said. The scenic snowcapped region has been in the grip of an uprising since 1989 that has claimed at least 40,000 lives, according to official figures. Separatists put the death toll at between 80,000 and 100,000.

In other violence, four people, including a soldier and two militants, died in an exchange of fire in the Poonch region of Kashmir, a police spokesman said.

A woman collecting wood died when she was caught in the crossfire between the militants and security forces, he said.

The clash erupted after police got a tip that militants were in the wooded area. They came under fire when they went to investigate, he said. Police were searching for other militants believed to be hiding in the area. “Although the gunfire from the militant hide-out has ceased, the operation is still on to track down the remaining militants,” the spokesman said.