JAMMU, Nov 24: Militants raided two temples in occupied Jammu on Sunday, sparking a gunbattle which left eight dead, including one of the heavily-armed attackers.

Indian troops ended the siege of the bigger of the two worshipping places — the popular Raghunath temple — late in the night after killing a holed-up militant, and ringed the smaller shrine to flush out another militant.

“We have killed one militant and are taking his body away,” a senior paramilitary official said, as reporters inside the blood-splattered temple saw the bullet-ridden body of a militant being dragged away by his feet.

A.K. Sarin, inspector general of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), said the assailants first detonated an explosive device at a busy marketplace and then entered the Raghunath temple.

“There was a massive crowd in the Hari Market area where the explosion took place and in the confusion the militants entered into the temple,” Sarin said in New Delhi.

Some 50 devotees, including women and children, were still stuck inside, Anita Kumari, a devotee, said after escaping from the shrine.

THREE ARMY OFFICERS KILLED: Three Indian army officers and four policemen were among 23 people killed in clashes in occupied Kashmir, officials said on Sunday.