Eleven killed, 17 hurt in Kashmir rebel violence

SRINAGAR, India - Suspected militants shot dead a grandmother, mother and her infant daughter after the child's father, a former Kashmiri separatist rebel, surrendered to Indian security forces, police said on Sunday.

They then set the house on fire before fleeing, a police spokesman said.

Militants often attack families of police and army informers in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where separatists have waged a revolt against Indian rule since 1989.

Police had no further details on the killings of the three, which happened in Udhampur district, in the south of the state.

Seventeen people were also wounded when militants lobbed a grenade at a security bunker near a crowded bus stand in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital. The grenade missed the target and exploded on the road injuring 17 pedestrians.

India and Pakistan, which both claim Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, have begun a tentative peace process after fighting three wars and coming to the brink of a fourth over the disputed Himalayan region.

But violence has continued within the region despite the peace process.

In other incidents, suspected rebels shot dead four people while two civilians were beheaded by rebels across the region. Soldiers shot dead two senior members of Kashmir's frontline rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, in separate shootouts.

Officials say more than 45,000 people have been killed in the revolt.

- REUTERS