SRINAGAR, India, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Indian security forces shot dead two senior members of disputed Kashmir's largest militant group on Wednesday, police said, as thousands of people queued up nearby to vote in an election. A gunbattle broke out between police and members of the separatist Hizbul Mujahideen in the Shopian area of south Kashmir while voting for the sixth phase of the seven-stage state polls was under way. Police official Javid Ahmad said the two killed were Hizbul Mujahideen commanders who had carried out many roadside bomb attacks in Indian-ruled Kashmir. "The duo got killed after a fierce encounter," he said. There were no reports of other casualties. Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest and most active militant group in Kashmir for almost two decades, wants Kashmir to become part of predominantly Muslim Pakistan. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan both claim the region in full but rule it in part. Violence has fallen significantly across Kashmir since India and Pakistan began peace talks in 2004. Those talks have stalled after last month's attacks in Mumbai that killed 179 people and which India blames on militant groups based in Pakistan. Separatist leaders, many of whom remain in jail, have called for a boycott of the state elections in Kashmir, where officials say more than 47,000 people have been killed since a revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out in 1989. But a decent turnout in the six rounds of the election in Kashmir, hit by major anti-India protests earlier this year, has encouraged Indian authorities. Polling was peaceful in other areas of Kashmir on Wednesday, officials said. (Reporting By Sheikh Mushtaq; Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Dean Yates)
Students from schools run by Islamic charity organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa protest in Karachi, December 17, 2008. Pakistan has cracked down on suspected Islamists since the Mumbai attacks, detaining scores of people, many ...
