SRINAGAR, India -- Suspected militants opened fire on a bus stop in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday, killing seven people, as violence escalated ahead of state elections starting next week, police said.

The attack at the bus stop in Poonch district in the south of the state came after Jammu and Kashmir Law Minister Mushtaq Ahmed Lone and three others were shot dead in another part of the disputed region.

"The militants fired on the bus stand. Four of the dead are security persons," a police official told Reuters.

Guerrillas fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, which is at the heart of a military standoff with nuclear neighbor Pakistan, have threatened to kill anyone taking part in the elections which will end in October.

India says the elections are a key test of Pakistan's pledge to stop the flow of Islamic militants from its territory into Indian Kashmir.

Islamabad says the rebel incursions have largely stopped, but says the elections cannot be a substitute for a UN mandated plebiscite to decide the future of the disputed region.