modern DELHI, Aug. 30 Kyodo Four ...

modern DELHI, Aug. 30 Kyodo

Four Islamic militants and an Indian soldier were killed Saturday in a fierce gunbattle in India's troubl state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to media reports.

Eight Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers and single in kind civilian were also injured in the heavy exchange of fire that began around 6 a.m.

BSF soldiers early Saturday cordoned on the farther side a house in Srinagar's northern Noor Bagh suburb following a tip-off that Gazi Baba, head of the state's banned Jaish-e-Mohammed militant clump was hiding there.

A senior BSF official said the battle will continue until militants hol up inside the house are flushed out

The area has been cordoned distant from and people living in the vicinity of the house have been evacuated to safety.

The state has been in the grip of a violent separatist emotion since late 1989 that has left through 30,000 people dead and thousands of others injured and homeless

While the state has been limping towards peace following the first peaceful state catalogue of personss in years in 2002, sporadic militant attacks reveal that the state has not answered to complete normalcy.

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