They come as campaigning gets under way for state elections in Indian Kashmir, which ic rebels have vowed to disrupt. A police spokesman in Jammu, the state's winter capital, said a group of rebels opened fire on civilians in the Ghai Pass area of the Indian-administered Kashmir border district of Rajouri around midnight Friday, killing eight Muslims. Before opening fire, they grabbed hold of the victims and slit their throats with knives. Three of those killed were women. Additional forces were sent to the area.

In a separate incident just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from Ghai Pass, two more Muslims were killed in the Kalali area in a similar way. "It could be the handiwork of the same group," a police official said. "This is just an attempt to terrorise the people with elections just around the corner."

Police said that the areas where the incidents took place had previously been dominated by militants. "It could be the case that these people were no longer giving shelter to the militants and were therefore killed to take revenge on the eve of elections," the sources said. In another gory incident, at least 15 schoolchildren were injured, two of them seriously, in a grenade explosion outside Kashmirs southern town of Anantnag on Saturday, police and witnesses said in Srinagar, the summer capital.

They said militants hurled a grenade at a passing army vehicle around 10:00 am (0430 GMT) Saturday at Sagam, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Anantnag. However, the grenade missed the intended target and exploded in front of a group of students from a nearby government-run high school.

Two of the children -- Rasheeda Akhtar and Tariq Ahmed Mir -- were rushed to a hospital in the capital Srinagar and seven have been admitted to the district hospital at Anantnag. The others were being treated at a local health centre at Kokernag, police said.

Police are blaming these incidents on militants hoping to disrupt state elections due to be held in four phases from September 16. The rebels, who have been fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region since 1989, have vowed to kill those taking part. The attacks have heightened tensions in South Asia, where India and Pakistan have around a million war-ready troops on the border. Police and army sources said Armitage's visits to New Delhi on Friday and Islamabad on Saturday had led to the sudden spurt in violence.

On Friday, while Armitage was meeting Indian officials, Pakistan claimed that Indian troops had launched an air attack at the Gultari army post along the Kashmir's Line of Control (LoC) late on Thursday. India said the claim was an "outright lie" and the foreign ministry said it was a "diversionary tactic" aimed at undermining the US visit.

However, the Pakistan government's spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi alleged that the Indian Air Force had carried out up to five raids after Indian troops launched an attack, adding that many Indian soldiers were killed in a counter attack. Police and military sources in Kashmir, however, said the exchanges of fire along the international border and the Loc were "normal firing". - AFP