Indian security forces have shot dead six rebels in two gun battles in Kashmir and tightened their siege of a mosque where another two militants are believed to be hiding.
Four rebels died in a clash northwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, police said in a statement today.
Two more, including a commander of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen separatist group, died in a gun battle nearby, a police spokesman said.
Security forces are also besieging a mosque in north Kashmir where at least two separatist guerrillas are believed to be hiding. "Repeated appeals were made to the militants to surrender but so far the siege continues," a police official said.
The suspected militants took refuge in the mosque yesterday to avoid security forces searching near the town of Sopore, north of Srinagar.
It is the seventh time in a year militants have sought refuge in a mosque in Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in largely Hindu India.
In another incident, the army arrested five members of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen west of Srinagar, police said.