Indian commandos rescued 12 hostages, including five women and four children, being held by Islamic militants in northern Kashmir early yesterday morning by shooting dead their captors at a camp in Bandipur, 40 miles from the state capital, Srinagar, Rahul Bedi reports.
National security guard commandos stormed the paramilitary complex where militants from the al Badr group had been holding the hostages, a day after they attacked the encampment and shot dead three officers and a woman.
The hostages were family members of paramilitary personnel from the border security force that has been fighting Kashmir's decade-old civil war. One of the militants was shot dead by paramilitary sharpshooters a few hours after the hostage crisis began.
Senior intelligence officers in Srinagar said around 1,000 to 1,500 militants had entered Indian-administered Kashmir from neighbouring Pakistan over the past two months.