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

　　Two Pakistan-based Islamic groups have claimed responsibility for gunning down Law Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Lone on Wednesday, the first slaying of a senior Indian politician in a decade.

　　Kashmiri separatists have pledged to derail the state election that began on Monday and more than 300 people, including another candidate and several party workers, have been killed since the poll was announced in early August.

　　The 45-year-old Lone, one of Kashmir's most heavily guarded leaders, was gunned down as he addressed an election rally ahead of Monday's first round of voting for a new Jammu and Kashmir state assembly.

　　India's junior foreign minister, Omar Abdullah 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.

　　India and Pakistan are locked in a military stand-off over Kashmir that brought them close to another war this year and New Delhi has said the level of violence during the election would be a crucial indication of Islamabad's pledge to stop Islamic separatists crossing into Kashmir.

　　Three of Lone's police bodyguards were also killed. In separate attacks 12 others died on Wednesday as the world marked the anniversary of the September 11 suicide hijack attack Washington has blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

　　Some Afghan militants fighting alongside Kashmiri separatists are believed to have trained with al-Qaida.