Militants die in Indian gun battle

Five militants were killed and 13 policemen were wounded during a fierce three-hour gun battle in the southern Indian state of Karnataka early today, police said.

Police commandos from Karnataka and neighbouring Tamil Nadu state surrounded a house in downtown Bangalore shortly after midnight local time after receiving a tip that militants had moved in, a police official said.

Authorities called on the militants to surrender, but they opened fire instead. All five militants inside were killed in the gun battle.

Among the dead was Imam Ali, a man accused of being the mastermind behind a series of bomb blasts in the southern Indian town of Coimbatore, 230 miles south of Bangalore, in February 1998, in which at least 69 people were killed and several hundreds were injured.

Ali had escaped from police custody in Madras, capital of Tamil Nadu province, in March.