Journalist shot in Kashmir

Tensions have risen in Kashmir in recent months

Suspected separatist militants have shot and wounded a journalist in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Shahid Rashid, who is editor of the Urdu-language State Reporter daily newspaper, was attacked while waiting for a bus in a Srinagar neighbourhood.

He was hit by three bullets, in the arms and the neck, and his condition is being described as serious.

Mr Rashid is a former separatist militant who launched the State Reporter after his release from jail in the 1990s.

Police say that militants may have attempted to kill him because they believe he was pressured into switching his sympathies to the Indian Government during his incarceration.

Renewed attacks

No militant group has so far said it carried out the attack on Mr Rashid, who is the second journalist to be attacked in the past six weeks.

In May, a sub-editor of the daily Kashmir Images, Zaffar Iqbal, was shot at in his office.

Authorities believe militants want to disrupt the elections

About 10 journalists have been killed in Kashmir since the outbreak of armed conflict 13 years ago.

Some have been killed by separatists and others by Indian forces, but none was targeted for about five years until a sub-editor of the daily Kashmir Images, Zaffar Iqbal, was shot in May this year.

The Indian authorities say the latest attacks are part of the militants' renewed offensive against pro-India activists ahead of the forthcoming elections to the state's law-making assembly.

Aside from journalists, five prominent activists of the ruling National Conference party have been shot dead in the past month.

The Indian authorities say even the assassination of moderate separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone is part of the same offensive to disrupt the elections.

The Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen militant group has claimed responsibility for the killing of the party officials, but nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks on journalists or the killing of Mr Lone.

Regional tension

The ongoing violence in Kashmir had recently brought India and Pakistan to the brink of all-out war.

Assassinations have been on the rise

On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary told BBC News Online said both the UK and the US were keen on seeing an end to tensions but were limited in what they could do.

"What we can do is to encourage both sides initially to take steps to de-escalate from the tension along the line of control and then, over time, to encourage them to dialogue," he said.

The two nuclear powers have massed a million troops along the border since parliament in Delhi was attacked in December, but tensions eased recently under massive international pressure.