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NEW DELHI, Thursday (AFP)

India's Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said the killing of an Indian Kashmir state minister was an attack on democracy and aimed at disrupting the upcoming elections in the state.

"These incidents of violence... are an attack on democracy and intended at subverting the will of the people who would like to exercise their right to elect an assembly," he said.

"If you kill innocent people to achieve political motive, we cannot call it a freedom struggle. It is just terrorism," he told reporters.

Kashmir's law and parliamentary affairs minister Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, was killed when suspected militants opened fire as he was addressing a public gathering in the village of Rathnag in the northern Kupwara district.

Three of his police guards were also killed.

Indian Kashmir is due to hold the first stage of a four-phase election for the state assembly on Monday, when five districts including Kupwara will head to the polls.

"We are giving our full attention at this moment to ensure that the polls in Kashmir are held smoothly and peacefully," Advani said.

But Islamic rebels fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir have vowed to attack anyone participating in the polls, while leading separatists have pledged to stay away from the vote.

Two groups claimed responsibility for the attack, the pan-Islamic movement Lashkar-e-Taiba and a previously unknown group called the al-Arifeen squad.

Lashkar was one of two groups which India blamed for an attack on its parliament in December which triggered a military standoff between India and its arch-rival Pakistan.

Advani said there was no possibility of dialogue or other diplomatic initiatives with Pakistan until it stopped infiltration of militants.

"For India, we can only say that we have been facing an undeclared war called terrorism for the last two decades. It is an undeclared war," he said.

"Therefore, if India feels we should hold peace talks with Pakistan only if this undeclared war ends, it is a justified and legitimate approach.

Our response will depend on the action on the ground (by Pakistan)," Advani said.

Advani, said the government was confident of restoring peace in Kashmir because a similar and seemingly-intractable problem of militant-linked separatist violence in the northern state of Punjab in the 1980s was resolved.

"I used to feel then that perhaps Punjab will never be same again.

But today the situation has totally changed," he said.

"It is this which gives us confidence that we will bring about normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir as we did in Punjab," Advani added.

Meanwhile India has blamed Pakistan for the assassination of a state minister in Kashmir, stoking fears of renewed tensions between the nuclear rivals over the disputed Himalayan region.

India's junior foreign minister, Omar Abdullah, who heads Kashmir's ruling National Conference party, blamed Pakistan for Lone's slaying at Tikkipora village, near his home village of Sogam.

"Militants and their patrons in Pakistan were unnerved by the enthusiasm of the people to participate in the elections and so they are resorting to such dastardly acts," he said.

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