All 5 hostages rescued, 3 militants dead in J&K

Another militant managed to flee and took shelter in one of the minarets of the mosque and engaged the police in an encounter for nearly an hour after which he too was eliminated.

DIG H K Lohia said all the five hostages were unharmed and no damage was done to the mosque in the gunbattle.

Earlier in the day, three of the five hostages trickeed their way to freedom even as the hostage drama rolled into the second day.

The three civilians were sent out by the militants to bring them food offered by the police but never returned to the mosque.

Three militants, said to be associated with Hizbul Mujahideen took five civilians hostage inside a mosque at Palnoo village on Monday when they came to offer prayers and demanded safe passage in return for return of the hostages.

Police refused to give them safe passage and instead strengthened the cordon around the place of worship, aiming to wear down the ultras who ran out of food and power supply

which was snapped by authorities.

Earlier, a jawan was wounded as the militants opened fire from inside the mosque and the security forces refrained from retailating to avoid risk to the lives of the hostages and damage to the mosque.

All villagers near the mosque had been evacuated to avoid largescale casualty.

The civil administration and police earlier negotiated with the holed up militants with the help of a local cleric and other eminent persons.