Click to play videoJammu: Security forces have killed all the three militants who were holding three woman and four children hostage in Jammu's Chinore area.
"The operation in Chinore has ended as the third militant was killed around 23:30 hrs IST. Security forces have launched a search operation in the house to ascertain if booby traps had been laid," Senior Superintendent of Police (Jammu) Manohar Singh said.
One militant was killed in the early stage of the encounter that began around 0700 hrs IST on Wednesday and the second terrorist was shot dead in the evening after a three-hour lull in the gunbattle, while he was trying to escape under the cover of darkness, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu K Rajendra was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.
Three of the hostages are feared dead including two children. Sources say that the mother of the children was shot in the leg and has been rushed to the hospital.
The fate of the other hostages is not known as yet.
Among the hostages were four children in the age group of two to nine. The youngest was Vipin Kumar, 2, while the other three are Kajal, 4, Ishant, 6 and Sheetal, 9.
Police said efforts to rescue the hostages were hampered because there was only one entrance on the ground floor of the residential building, even as it had been an agonising wait for the father of the children held hostage, Billu Ram.
Billu Ram had remained outside the house, waiting for the safe release of his wife and children.
"Militants have entered my house. My four children and wife are inside. There were two more women inside," an anxious Billu Ram had told CNN-IBN on Wednesday morning.
An eyewitness said that everyone retreated into their homes as soon as they heard the gun shots. Then the Army evacuated them from the densely populated area.
The gunbattle between security forces and the militants lasted nearly 17 hours. The police and Army personnel had cordoned off the area.
Army personnel took positions on roof tops of adjoining houses in the densely populated Chinore area, which is located on a hillock.
Grenade explosions and gun shots were heard in the area as the one-storey building where the militants were hiding was perforated with bullet marks.
The Army had not launched a "final onslaught" - which in military terms means blowing up the building with rocket launchers or explosives - keeping the safety of the hostages in mind.
Porous Border
The police had said that three terrorists had crossed into Jammu and Kashmir from the Kanachak sector of the Pakistan border on Tuesday morning. They were intercepted at the police check post of Chinore on Wednesday morning, about 20 km north from the centre of Jammu.
The militants, dressed in police uniforms and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, shot dead a junior commissioned officer and then hijacked a three-wheeler.
They then fired indiscriminately killing a milk man identified as Shabeet Hussain as well as a motorcyclist, Naseeb Singh, before killing the three-wheeler driver, Vijay Kumar, said the police.
However, they managed to kill three civilians, and an Army officer before entering a house in Chinore and taking the six civilians hostage.
"A high alert has been sounded in Jammu due to the terrorist infiltration from across the border," said Inspector General of Police (Jammu Zone) K Rajendra.
Security Measures
The Border Security Force , along with police and Army personnel, had launched a massive manhunt for the militants, who had entered the Indian territory at Kanachak, about 20 km north of here, after cutting the barbed wire fence on Tuesday.
"This is a serious situation. The intruders sneaked into the Indian side under the cover of fire, which was most probably provided by the Pakistani Rangers," a BSF official said.
This is the second major gun battle in Jammu region in less than three and a half months.
Six people were killed in Samba town, 40 km south west of Jammu May 11. According to defence sources, militants had infiltrated May 8 from across the international border in Samba sector before they surfaced May 11 morning and killed civilians and soldiers. Three militants were killed in that battle.
People in the Jammu region have been holding rallies demanding the allocation of 40 hectares of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.
Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti, a coalition of some 30 Hindu groups spearheading the agitation over the land row, has planned a huge rally later Wednesday at Jammu's Parade Ground.
(With inputs from agencies)
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