In the first such fatal attack on the United Nations International Police Force in Kosovo, Satish Menon, an Indian member of the multinational police force, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the strife-torn northern part of the country Sunday night, UN officials said on Monday.

Menon, a police major, was killed in a sniper ambush while driving towards Mitrovica from Leposavic village. Mitrovica, a town with Serb majority north, was the scene of violent demonstrations last year.

The attack on the road between Kosovska Mitrovica and Leposavic, UN officials said, started when the vehicle slowed down because of obstacles on the road.

"Menon was a member of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) border service and at the time of attack, he was on duty in a police vehicle of the international forces," Radio Yugloslavija said in a bulletin. "The motive of the attack is still unknown and the investigation is under way," it said.

Ironically, the attack on Menon, the first on a UN policeman in Kosovo since the world body's mission in the troubled region started in October 1999, came less than a week after Kiran Bedi, appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan early this year as the civilian police advisor in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, left for Kosovo last month.

A spokesman for Annan told journalists Monday that the attack on Menon was the first on a UN police official. In October 1999, a civilian staff member of the UN in Kosovo, Valentine Krumov, was killed by unknown assailants.

In an interview with India in New York, a rediff publication, Bedi said last month that the UN was looking at the concept of country policing in failed states that requite not only a refurbishment but a renewal of their systems. "The biggest indicator of good governance is security. No security means no growth," she said.

Annan's Special Representative Charles Brayshaw said Monday that the attack will not distract police from doing its duties. "I know that the people of Kosovo are astounded and repudiate this murder. I know they find this as repugnant as I do," he said in a statement. "This was a direct attack on international forces of law and order."