One dead in Kashmir mosque siege

Security forces remove the body of the militant

Indian troops have killed a suspected militant who was holed up in a mosque in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials say.

Police officials, who did not want to be identified, said the militant, named as Mudasir Ahmed, laid down his arms after he was injured in the shoot-out.

He then took the security forces to the site of a secret arms dump.

He was later shot dead, according to these officials.

There are no reports of the security forces suffering any casualties in the shoot-out, but the mosque was reported to be extensively damaged.

Journalists were not allowed near the site - even after the operation was over.

Past violence

There have five such incidents in Indian-administered Kashmir this year, and this is the second this month.

In most of these incidents, the troops have killed the militants and damage has been caused to the mosques during the army operation.

However, there was no damage to a mosque near the northern township of Pattan where Indian troops carried out an operation against two militants hiding inside it about 10 days ago.

Indian security forces say such sieges pose a particular problem because any damage caused to mosques may inflame local sentiment.

Elsewhere in Kashmir, six militants were reported killed in separate on Thursday.

And two people were killed on a bus in the Srinagar area, when separatists shot at a suspected informer for the security forces.