Troops end siege in Indian Kashmir

INDIA: Commandos stormed a hotel in Indian Kashmir on Thursday where two militants had been holed up for nearly 24 hours, killing the gunmen and bringing an end to the siege.

The four-storey hotel in Srinagar, the summer capital of the volatile Himalayan region, was on fire before police announced both the pro-Pakistan extremists had been killed in a morning assault by security forces.

The gunmen one a Pakistani and the other an Indian Kashmiri, according to police had taken refuge in the hotel on Wednesday after throwing grenades and opening fire in Srinagar's main market area.

One police officer was killed in the attack and one bystander succumbed to his injuries Thursday.

"The operation as far as we are concerned is over," Kuldeep Khuda, the State Police Chief, told reporters at the scene.

The Indian-administered section of Muslim-majority Kashmir has been wracked by a separatist and anti-India insurgency for two decades, though violence has fallen in recent years.

Divided into Indian and Pakistani-controlled zones, Kashmir has been the trigger for two wars between the South Asian rivals since their independence from Britain in 1947.

A pro-Pakistan militant group, Jamiat-ul-Mujahedin, claimed it was behind the assault, which left five police and four civilians injured. Police pointed the finger at the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). India blames LeT for the deadly attacks on Mumbai in 2008 that claimed the lives of 166 people after a highly organised rampage by 10 Islamist gunmen who attacked two luxury hotels among other targets.

Overnight in Srinagar, police fired teargas to disperse scores of anti-India and pro-militant youths who threw stones at security forces, chanting "Kashmiri Mujahedeen, we are with you" and "We want freedom". AFP