Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri, confessed in TV interviews that he helped plot the 2001 attack that killed 14, including all five attackers. He has since denied any involvement and said he was tortured into confessing.

Opposition lawmakers from the Bharatiya Janata Party did not allow any business to be conducted in the legislature and demanded that a resolution asking India's president to commute Guru's death sentence be dropped.

Congress party members from the ruling coalition also yelled slogans accusing the BJP legislators of corruption. Guru's death sentence sparked protests in Kashmir and warnings that his execution could destabilize the volatile Himalayan region. At least eight people have died in three days of fierce fighting between rebels and government forces in Kashmir, officials said.

The fighting erupted Monday after soldiers and police raided a militant hide-out in Kralpora, a remote area about 130 km north of Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar said.

He said five suspected rebels, two police and an army officer have been killed so far.

“It's a dense forested area and very difficult terrain. So it's taking a long time,” Brar said.

In a separate incident, suspected rebels killed a policeman on guard duty in Srinagar on Wednesday, a police officer said.

Police and paramilitary soldiers were hunting the assailants, the officer said.