SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Suspected militants stormed a house in a remote village in Indian Kashmir on Sunday and shot dead four members of a family, police said.

The victims were 55-year-old Mohammad Ada Bhat, his wife, a daughter and a teenage niece.

Police inspector-general Shesh Pal Vaid said they were investigating the motive for the killings in Udhampur district, 240 km (150 miles) south of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.

Militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 have killed civilians in the past, suspecting them to be police or army informers.

Authorities say violence has steadily decreased in Kashmir since India and Pakistan began a peace process in 2004 to resolve their historical row over Kashmir which is split between them but is claimed in full by both.

However, despite the lull in violence, people are still killed in daily shootouts and occasional grenade attacks in the scenic Himalayan region, where more than 45,000 people have died since the anti-India revolt began.

Political separatists put the toll at twice as high.

Separately on Sunday, Indian soldiers shot dead two members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba rebel group in Doda district in the south of the state, police said.