The first reported suicide attack in the state was on July 13, 1999 when two militants barged into the northern headquarters of India's Border Security Force (BSF) and killed six people, including a senior BSF officer.

Militants, mainly from the hardline Islamic groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, have been carrying out suicide, or fidayeen, attacks against security forces since then.

One of the worst attacks was on October 1, 2001, when rebels drove an explosive-laden jeep up to Kashmir's legislature building and blew themselves up.

Three other gunmen managed to enter the building and engaged troops in a fierce fire-fight. In all some 40 people were killed.

"I still shiver while recalling that fateful day," says Imtiaz Ahmed, whose carpet shop is near the legislature building.

"I could see death and destruction on all the sides," he said, adding he had a narrow escape as shrapnel from the blast hit his shop.

"Even today when I see a white jeep heading towards the building, I get scared," says Mohammed Altaf, a police constable who was in the area when "all of a sudden a jeep went up in flames after a huge explosion."

Both Ahmed and Altaf said the news of suicide attacks in Iraq against US troops revived their "bitter memories."

Security forces in Kashmir have barricaded their camps with barbed wire and iron fencing strung with hand grenades.

But this did not stop the region's latest suicide attack in November when two militants attacked a camp in Srinagar, the summer capital, killing six policemen.

"It was like hell breaking loose. We could feel bullets raining at us from two directions inside the camp," said Amit Kumar, a policeman in the camp.

In the ensuing gunbattle two militants were also killed.

Kumar said there was very little security forces could do to stop such attacks and warned American and British troops could be in deep trouble.

"It is difficult to know from a distance which car is laden with explosives and which is not," he said.

Members of Islamic militant suicide squads are "highly indoctrinated" and want to die, a senior police officer told AFP.

"They come to die. There is hardly anything one can do."

A suicide attack by militants in Kashmir in May 2002 that left 32 Indian army soldiers and their family members dead brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a fourth war.

India blamed the attack on Pakistan-based groups Lashkar and Jaish and said they also carried out a suicide attack on its parliament in New Delhi in December 2001 which left 15 dead, including the attackers.

The militancy in Kashmir has claimed at least 38,000 lives since it began in 1989, according to official figures, or double that according to militants and separatists.

Muslim clerics in Kashmir have justified suicide attacks against US-led troops in Iraq.

"Fidayeen attacks are the only way to prevent more US incursions into Iraq," said Ali Mohammmed, who leads Friday prayers in Srinagar's busy Abi Guzar mosque.

His sermons have been loaded with anti-US sentiment since the invasion started on March 20.

SPACE.WIRE