Terror holds Jammu family hostage in 17 hour gunbattle

After weeks of being on the boil over the Amarnath land issue, Jammu was gripped with fear today after at least three militants, suspected to have sneaked in from Pakistan yesterday, killed four persons, including an Army junior commissioned officer, and held eight persons — four children, their mother and grandmother and two men — hostage for over 17 hours in a house on the outskirts of the city. The men were the children’s tutor and a neighbour.

The gunbattle between security forces and the militants, which began around 6 am in Chinnore barely 20 km from the international border — ended around 11 pm tonight when the last of the three militants, according to Jammu SSP Manohar Singh, was shot dead.

According to a jawan who went into the house around midnight, the children were said to be safe while one “male” was dead and another man had bullet injuries in the leg. Both women were safe — the grandmother escaped in the morning and the mother came out of the house after the encounter.

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For first time, United States made gun seized in the Valley

For the first time in the Valley, a US-made gun has been recovered from militants killed in an encounter three days ago. While militants have been known to use Chinese, Russian and Japanese weapons in the state, security forces had never recovered one of US origin.

The gun its butt burnt has markings of Colt's Firearms, Colt Industries, Hartford, USA, etched on its body, right above the trigger.The black plastic magazine, recovered intact, has markings of THERMOLD D.& D INC WILSON, N.C., USA.

The police said the gun has 22 rounds of slim but long bullets in its magazine, and is probably an SMG (submachine gun). Deputy Inspector General, Baramulla range, B Srinivasan said that they suspected that the gun was a used Pakistani army weapon.

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