Srinagar, Dec 11- Senior Hurriyat Conference leader Fazal Haq Qureshi, who was critically injured in a murderous attack last week, is making steady progress, a doctor said Friday.

"He is improving and making steady progress. He also spoke to his relatives and attendants today (Friday)," a senior doctor at the Sher-e-Kashmir Medical Institute Soura (SKIMS) told IANS.

"We are continuously monitoring his condition and he is improving," he said.

Qureshi had been critically injured when separatist guerrillas fired at him from a close range in the Soura locality of the city when he was leaving for a mosque Dec 4.

A bullet hit Qureshi in the head. Initial reports that he had been hit by an iron rod were proved wrong after some passers-by picked up his cap a few days after the attack.

"The cap had two holes obviously showing the entry and the exit of the bullet that had been fired at him," said a relative of the separatist leader.

Qureshi, a senior leader of the moderate Hurriyat group headed by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, favoured a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue and wanted a dialogue with New Delhi.

The attempt on his life is seen as a warning to the moderate Hurriyat group against talks with the central government.

The Al-Nasireen, a little-known guerrilla group believed to be an operational combine of the Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba terror groups, had owned responsibility for the attack. (IANS)