A state police deputy superintendent died in a landmine blast Saturday in the southern Kashmiri district of Kathua, police officials said.
Militants overnight entered a private house at Kandola, 220 kilometres (135 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, and shot dead its owner Bashir Ahmed, his mother, his 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, police said.
They added that militants raided the home of Saddar Din in the southern district of Doda and gunned down two members of his family and injured the homeowner.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the killings, the motives for which were unclear.
Also overnight, nine militants were killed in a string of clashes in the districts of Poonch, Rajouri and Anantnag. One security trooper and three civilians were injured.
Militants also shot dead a member of the Indian counter-insurgency police at Pattan, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Srinagar, and elsewhere three more people, including a former militant who was killed and whose body was set ablaze in his car.
Saturday marked "Black Day" for Kashmiri separatists, the 54th anniversary of the deployment of Indian troops in the disputed Himalayan territory, bordering Pakistan.
Seven civilians and four personnel from India's Border Security Force were injured in three separate hand-grenade attacks in Srinagar on Saturday.
Elsewhere, security forces were battling with five Muslim militants, three of whom have barricaded themselves in a mosque, in Panzan, near Chadoora 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of Srinagar.
More than 35,000 people have been killed since the start of a separatist insurgency in Kashmir in 1989 -- India, (AFP)
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