Government forces today killed two suspected Islamic militants hiding in a shopping complex near the residence of India’s most senior elected official in Kashmir, ending a 24-hour stand-off, police said.

Security forces lifted a siege on a mosque in northern India following a gun battle that left two suspected Islamic militants and a civilian dead, police said.

Pakistan-based Islamic militants in Kashmir were lying low today amid rising US pressure on Islamabad to clampdown on terrorists who have brought India and its neighbour to the brink of a fourth war.