Militants killed as 3-day held Kashmir gunbattle ends

SRINAGAR: A gunbattle which lasted almost three days in Indian occupied Kashmir ended Wednesday with the killing of two militants holed up inside a government building, as the region reels from deadly unrest.

The militants took up positions on Monday morning inside a 60-room institute in the region´s main city of Srinagar, the second time this year rebels have used the compound as cover to attack soldiers. The building was empty at the time.
Soldiers pounded the government-run Entrepreneurship Development Institute with rocket grenades, flamethrowers and other weaponry before gaining access to it.
Major-General Ashok Narula said soldiers then searched the six-storey building room-by-room for the militants in a slow-moving operation that left one soldier injured.
"Two people have been eliminated and two weapons have also been recovered," Narula told reporters at the scene after the operation was declared over.
In February five soldiers, three militants and a civilian were killed during a gunbattle that also raged for three days in another building on the same compound.
Militants raided an Indian army base in the region last month, killing 19 soldiers in the deadliest such attack for more than a decade.