04 November 2004	Thursday	20 Ramazan 1425

SRINAGAR, Nov 3: Indian troops killed five militants in a fierce gunfight in Kashmir after the freedom fighters barricaded themselves inside a mosque, an army official said Wednesday.

The militants fled to the mosque after fighting began when soldiers surrounded Khilangund village in southern Pulwama district early Wednesday, following a tip-off that militants were sheltering there.

"We have killed all the five militants who barricaded themselves inside the mosque," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel V.K. Batra said. "The mosque is intact and now free of militants."

Batra said the militants, who belonged to an unknown group, were gunned down by troops backed by sharpshooters and that the commanding officer suffered minor injuries in the heavy firing.

The soldiers had urged the militants to surrender but they answered each appeal "by opening fire," Batra said.

Militants running away from Indian security forces often take refuge in mosques and shrines, putting authorities in a quandary over whether to risk damaging the holy site by flushing them out, or letting them go.

Usually, authorities try to drive the militants out of the mosques but many have been damaged in the process.

In May 1995, security forces killed 17 militants in a mosque in Chrara-i-Sharif in central Kashmir after a siege lasting two months. The shrine was destroyed in the battle.-AFP