SRINAGAR, 7 July 2005 — In a daring attack suspected militants opened fire on a minister’s motorcade in Srinagar’s busy Lal Chowk area in Indian Kashmir yesterday, wounding an armed guard and four passers-by, police said.

Syed Bashir Ahmed, junior minister for irrigation and public health, escaped unhurt in the attack in Srinagar, said S.A. Sayeed, the senior superintendent of police.

Witness Ghulam Rasool said two attackers pulled guns from their tunics and opened fire on Bashir’s convoy. The minister was trapped in his car for 30 minutes.

Passers-by scrambled as shots were fired and shops and offices closed.

“We have sealed parts of Lal Chowk and are searching for the militants,” a paramilitary officer said.

“The minister is safe but two of his guards were injured,” he said.

Bashir said he had caught a clear glimpse of two youths clad in pherans or Kashmiri overcoats who had carried out the attack.

“As their eyes met mine, they pulled out weapons from under their pherans and started firing at my car,” said after the attack.

“I remained trapped inside the car for 30 minutes and I began thinking this was the end of the road for me,” he said, noting that the attack in such a high-security area amounted to a “breach of security”.

Additional security forces were rushed to Lal Chowk but the militants managed to escape. Police officials said they had found a pheran and two AK-47 rifles that were apparently abandoned by the militants

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, suspected militants shot dead five people, two of them Indian soldiers guarding the de facto border with Pakistan, police said. The soldiers were killed during a clash with militants late Tuesday near the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, a police spokesman said.

Also killed by militants were two civilians suspected of being informers in southern Kashmir as well as a former rebel in the north of the state. Indian troops shot dead a self-styled divisional commander of the region’s main rebel group, Hizbul Mujahedeen, in the northern district of Baramulla yesterday, a police spokesman said.

None of the dozen rebel groups fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir has claimed responsibility for the latest killings.

Kashmir to Be Connected

With Jeddah, Dubai by 2006

Kashmir will receive direct flights from Jeddah and Dubai from next year following upgradation of the Srinagar airport, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here.

Patel held a meeting with Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who was assured that Srinagar would have one of the best airports in India by 2006. “If we are able to improve the ‘climate’ here, we should be able to bring in as many tourists as would want to visit Kashmir,” Patel said.

Sayeed raised the issue of shortage of flights to and from Kashmir. He said the inflow of tourists was heavy and airlines were running a 40 days’ wait list as of yesterday.

The chief minister also proposed deputing the shuttle services of a Boeing aircraft for the profitable Srinagar-Delhi, Srinagar-Leh and Srinagar-Jammu sectors.