Updated on Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 00:00 IST

Zeenews Bureau

Jammu, Aug 27: In a fierce encounter with the militants in Chinore on the outskirts of Jammu, the Army managed to gun down all three of the militants holed up inside a house. The security forces have also rescued six hostages including four children and two women.

Three civilians, an Army officer and all three militants have been killed in the encounter.

The militants took six civilians hostage on Wednesday morning in a house in Chinore on the outskirts of the city. The three militants had crossed into Jammu and Kashmir from the Kanachak sector of the border with Pakistan on Tuesday morning. They were intercepted at the police check post of Chinore on Wednesday morning, around 20 km north from the centre of Jammu.

The militants, dressed in police uniforms and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, shot dead a junior commissioned officer and then hijacked a three-wheeler. They then fired indiscriminately killing Shabeet Hussain, a milkman, and motorcyclist Naseeb Singh before killing the three-wheeler driver, Vijay Kumar, said the police.

The guerrillas then entered a house in Chinore. Police and Army personnel immediately cordoned off the area and were engaged in a gunbattle with the militants. The day long ordeal has finally ended with the death of the militants.