HIGHLIGHTS: Abdul Gani Died Reciting Quranic Verses||India Hoped to Persuade Assassinated Leader Take Part in Elections Later This Year|| Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah Pointed a Finger of Blame on Pakistan||Resistance Groups Blame Indian Intelligence Agencies||STORY: A moderate Kashmiri separatist leader was shot dead in Indian Kashmir on Tuesday, in a killing likely to undermine efforts to bring peace to the troubled Himalayan region. (Read photo caption)

Witnesses said Abdul Gani Lone, a moderate leader of the main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, was shot by two unidentified gunmen during a meeting in Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu And Kashmir State.

"He (Lone) fell down and started reciting Koranic verses. When the gunmen realized that he was still alive they fired again and he died there," Lone's driver, Abdul Rashid, told Reuters.

Lone was one of the moderate separatist leaders India had hoped to persuade to take part in elections later this year in Indian Kashmir, at the centre of a military standoff between nuclear-capable rivals India and Pakistan.

But Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Lone's death would not strike a major blow to peace moves in Kashmir.
"It should not. It will have an impact, but it should not hurt peace moves. Stronger efforts should be made to bring peace," Vajpayee told reporters in Jammu.

"He was working for peace which is why he was killed," said Vajpayee, who began a visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

The bearded Lone, nearly 70, was the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference Party, a constituent of the Hurriyat and opposed the presence of "foreign" militants in Kashmir.

Lone was attending a function to mark the 12th anniversary of the death of Kashmir's chief Religious Leader, Moulvi Mohammad Farooq, shot dead by unidentified gunmen in his house on May 21, 1990.

On the same day more than 50 people were killed when Indian police opened fire on mourners carrying the body of Moulvi Farooq.

Witnesses said the gunmen who shot Lone also lobbed a grenade, but it failed to explode. One of his bodyguards was also killed and another was injured in the attack.

Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah pointed a finger of blame on Pakistan for Lone's killing.

In Pakistan, an alliance of Resistance groups fighting India's rule in disputed Kashmir accused Indian intelligence agencies as being behind the killing of Lone.

"It is a big tragedy, we express our sorrow and grief," a spokesman for the United Jihad Council alliance told Reuters in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.

"The hand of Indian intelligence agencies behind the killing cannot be ruled out," said the spokesman.

PHOTO CAPTION

Abdul Gani Lone, a leader of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, speaks during a news conference in Srinagar in November last year. Witnesses said Lone was shot dead on May 21. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli