Seven Amarnath pilgrims, five of them women, were killed in a militant attack in Anantnag, the police said At 8.20 pm on Monday, the militants attacked an armoured car of the police, an official said. When the police fired back, the militants fled, firing indiscriminately, the official added A bus carrying yatris was on the highway when the incident occurred “In the firing by militants, seven people, five of them women, were killed, and another seven injured,” the official said The bus had come from Sonamarg. The pilgrims were on their way back after visiting the Amarnath shrine The police claimed the bus driver had violated rules for the pilgrimage, which state that no yatra vehicle should be on a highway after 7 pm.

“This incident goes against the very grain of Kashmiri ethos,” separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Farooq and Yasin Malik said in a joint statement. “The annual Amarnath yatra has been going on peacefully for centuries and is part of our yearly rhythm and will remain so.” Militants battling Indian rule in Kashmir have largely spared the pilgrimage, even during the most violent phases of their 28-year armed revolt. About 150,000 pilgrims have already completed the journey to Amarnath and tens of thousands more are expected to do so by the time it ends in late August. India has been struggling to restore normality in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim in full but rule in part. India accuses Pakistan of pushing in militants from its part of Kashmir to carry out attacks, a charge denied by Islamabad.