Suspected rebels attacked a police station in the Indian portion of Kashmir with hand grenades and automatic weapons Friday, killing one officer and wounding five others, AP quoted police as saying. Panicked shop owners fled as the assault began in Sopore, a town 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Indian Kashmir"s main city of Srinagar, said Sheikh Faisal, a local police officer. At midday Friday, police and the attackers were still exchanging gunfire. «We downed shutters of our shops and started running away as we first heard sounds of explosions followed by gunshots,» said Firdous Ahmed, a shop owner. Besides the officer killed, three police officers and two civilians have been hospitalized with wounds from the fighting, Faisal said. No rebel group immediately claimed responsibility.
