The attack was the first violence in the disputed state ahead of Indian elections beginning this month.

An explosion went off as state Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh and Tourism Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir were about to speak at the rally in Uri, 100km north of the summer capital Srinagar, police said.

"The explosion was followed by firing. We could not see who was firing, but I could see many people lying in a pool of blood," said Fayaz Ahmed, a cameraman covering the event for Asian News International.

"There were screams and shrieks from all sides," Ahmed told AFP by telephone.

Police said four people were killed of the some 200 who had come out for the rally, held in the yard of a school.

Beigh, the finance minister, was hurt in the leg but his injuries were not life-threatening, a police officer said.

"Mir was bleeding profusely, but he was still talking," the officer said.

The chief of Indian Kashmir's ruling People's Democratic Party, Mehbooba Mufti, was also at the rally but was not hurt in the attack, police said.

Indian troops immediately sealed off the venue and one person was arrested, police said.

Meanwhile, Indian troops yesterday shot dead the chief commander of hardline rebel group Jaish-e-Mohammed and four of his associates in a surge of violence in Kashmir which claimed a total of 16 lives, officials said.

Qari Asif, alias Sehrai Baba, one of the most wanted rebel commanders in Indian Kashmir, was gunned down during a clash with troops in the village of Sogan in northern Kupwara district, a police officer said.