SRINAGAR, June 10: Indian troops in occupied Kashmir on Thursday shot dead a freedom fighter holed up in a mosque, taking the death toll of a two-day siege to three, but one freedom fighter fled to another shrine, an official said.

Sharpshooters, who did not enter the mosque, killed one freedom fighter, but the other Mujahid hurled grenades at besieging troops and entered the adjoining shrine of a Sufi saint known as Syed Najeebudin Bukhari, a military spokesman said.

"We are seeing what to do. We don't want to cause any damage to the mosque and the shrine," Tirtha Acharya, spokesman for the paramilitary Border Security Force, said from the scene of the siege in Bogund, 70 kilometers south of Srinagar.

The violence broke out on Wednesday in Bogund, near the town of Kulgam, after troops ringed the village to track Mujahideen. One freedom fighter and a soldier were killed in initial fighting, after which the two rebels fled to the mosque.

Mr Acharya said the militants had been asked to give them selves up to prevent damage to the holy sites. Villagers living near the mosque were evacuated. -AFP