SRINAGAR, 31 July 2005 — The 24-hour gunbattle ended here late yesterday afternoon with the killing of two holed up militants who had been firing at the surrounding troops in the congested city center Lal Chowk.

A senior police officer told Arab News that the operation was jointly carried out by the local police, paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

“We have killed the two holed-up militants who have been firing from a hotel building and a shopping complex in Lal Chowk. We are now busy searching the area to ensure that there are no further militants holed up anywhere,” said the Kashmir Inspector General of Police Javed Ahmad Mukhdoomi.

“These men had entered the building complex in the afternoon of Friday and started firing at the surrounding troops. We have neutralized them without any damage to the hotel building or to other civilian properties in the area,” he added.

The officer also said that a storming party of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the local police had come under heavy fire early yesterday from inside the Gujarat Bengal Hotel in which one paramilitary personnel was critically wounded. Police also said the firing from inside the two hotel buildings on the surrounding troops had stopped now.

The encounter site is only 500 meters from the official residence of Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

Militant groups Al-Mansurain and Jamiatul Mujahedeen have jointly claimed responsibility for the attack, a spokesman of these guerrilla groups informed media persons. The caller also said that the guerrillas had not fired at journalists reporting the incidents as had been claimed.

“The security forces fired at these journalists, and we condemn such an act,” he said. At least nine local journalists were injured in the 24-hour encounter. Muzaffar Ahmed, the cameraman of Sahara Samay news channel, is still described as critical by attending doctors. He had received an abdominal bullet injury and the operating doctor had removed one of his damaged kidneys.

“We are trying to fly him to Delhi for specialized treatment and an aircraft is kept in readiness at Srinagar airport. But the problem is that blood is still oozing from his chest. Unless the wound is plugged it would be fatal to remove the patient,” an attending doctor said.

Twentyfive employees of the local bank branch near the encounter site are still trapped inside the bank premises as the bank was open when the shootout started.

The employees had phoned their relatives and friends saying they were safe as they had closed the bank shutters from inside. A senior police officer said that the bank branch is some distance from the encounter site and there is no danger to the lives of the staff trapped inside.

“They would be safely taken out once the hold up ends,” he said.

Javed Mukhdoomi denied media reports that at least 50 people were trapped inside the two hotel buildings. “There are no civilians inside the two hotels. There were only two businessmen from Punjab who were trapped inside the Gujarat Bengal Hotel and they have been safely evacuated.”

The guerrilla groups had earlier claimed that there were four of their men inside the two hotel buildings who had been engaged in the gunbattle with the security forces.

A senior police officer said two guerrillas were inside the two buildings and both had been killed.