April 24, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1429

SRINAGAR, April 23: Indian security forces shot dead three top commanders of the main militant group fighting in occupied Kashmir, police said on Wednesday.

Two of the militants were killed in a gunbattle while the third was shot dead in a separate incident nearby, they said.

The fighting erupted in the early hours of Wednesday and carried on for several hours until police and soldiers raided a house where the militants were hiding, police said. Two civilians were also wounded.

Both of the slain militants, district commander Tanveer Ahmed Zargar and his deputy Imtiyaz Khan, belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen, they said.

Separately, police and soldiers shot dead another Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Abu Haq, who had been sought for the last 15 years in connection with “a large number of killings”, a police spokesman said.—AFP