SRINAGAR, Oct 28: Indian troops on Sunday tightened a cordon around a mosque in held Kashmir to flush out barricaded guerrillas as 11 mujahideen and two soldiers died in overnight violence in the Himalayan state.

Troops moved closer to the mosque in Panzan, near Chadoora town, 30 kilometres east of Srinagar, where an unknown number of guerrillas have been holed up since Saturday, officials said.

“The cordon was tightened as repeated peaceful attempts to bring out the militants from the mosque failed,” a police official said in Srinagar.

A defence ministry official in New Delhi said only a single activist was in the shrine, adding the remaining appeared to have taken shelter in local houses. The statement could not be immediately confirmed by troops at the site.—AFP