INDIAN police blamed Kashmiri separatists yesterday for an attack on Hindu pilgrims that killed seven and injured 19 on Monday night.

Survivors said the bus had come under fire from three different directions near the southern town of Anantnag. The driver kept the bus moving as bullets struck it.

The annual summer pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave shrine, which began on June 29 under heavy security, has been targeted in the past.

Police blamed Pakistan-based separatist guerilla group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the massacre

“We’re investigating the attack, but we know certainly that the Lashkar has done it. We’ll soon deal with them,” said Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan.

Lashkar-e-Taiba denied any involvement in the attack, which it called “reprehensible” and “un-Islamic,” according to a statement sent to local media in Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir.

The group claimed India was behind the attack, which it said was intended “to sabotage the freedom struggle of Kashmiris” and fulfil “its nefarious agenda.”

“No Kashmiri has ever targeted any pilgrims and this barbarity and atrocity is the trademark of Indian forces,” the group’s statement said.

A memo circulated to regional police, military and paramilitary units on June 25 warned that a “sensational attack by terrorist outfits cannot be ruled out” in the mostly Muslim region.

“The attack may be in the form of stand-off fire on a yatra [pilgrimage] convoy, which they believe will result in flaring of communal tensions throughout the nation,” the memo said.