12 Killed as Police End Kashmir Temple Siege

Security forces used rocket launchers today to end a siege of two Hindu temples by Islamic militants in the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir, police said. Twelve people, including two rebels, were killed.

At least 50 others, mostly Hindu devotees visiting this city of temples, were injured, said Ashok Suri, police chief of Jammu and Kashmir state.

Police and paramilitary troops killed one militant at the Raghunath Temple and another at the nearby Panjbakhtar Temple in Jammu, the state’s winter capital, after a six-hour offensive.

Five civilians and two policemen were killed, authorities said. The identities of the three others killed were not immediately known. The bloodshed began near Raghunath Temple when grenades exploded in a neighboring market and two suspected Islamic militants stormed into the temple, firing weapons.