Strike hits Kashmir

Shops, schools and businesses remained shut across Indian-administered Kashmir after the All Party Hurriyat Conference called a one-day strike.

The strike was a protest against an attempted attack on the detained leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Malik.

Activists from the right-wing Hindu political party, Shiv Sena, are said to have tried to assault Mr Malik when he was taken by police for a medical check at a hospital in Jammu on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, police say security forces have killed three militants from the Hizbul Mujahideen -- two of them Pakistani nationals -- in a gunbattle near Kunzar, north of the summer capital, Srinagar.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service