The three, including former works minister Ghulam Ahmed Mir, were attacked in Sheri village in northern Uri sector during their tour of quake-hit areas, police said. No one was injured.

The Uri and neighbouring Tangdhar sectors were the worst hit by the October 8 earthquake that killed some 1,300 people in Indian Kashmir and left about 150,000 people homeless.

"The villagers were protesting a delay in the distribution of cash relief to them as promised by the officials," a police official said.

The protesters had blocked a road by squatting on the highway, and police then used teargas and batons to disperse them.

The villagers then threw stones at the motorcade of Mir and two other party leaders, Abdul Majid Padder and Ghulam Nabi Monga, the police official said.

The earthquake survivors have been complaining about a delay in receiving compensation and a lack of rations and kerosene to their villages.

As the harsh Himalayan winter has set in, some 20 children from the southern Kashmir district of Pulwama were admitted to hospital with cold-related illnesses on Friday.

Kashmir has also been in the grip of a 16-year-old insurgency that has left more than 44,000 people dead by official count.

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