Aijaz Hussain, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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SRINAGAR, India - An almost day-long hostage crisis in Indian-ruled Kashmir has ended with the deaths of three rebels.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Dar Yasin

Paramilitary soldiers walk towards their base camp during curfew in Srinagar, India.

Officials say Kashmiri rebels seized eight people during the 20-hour gunbattle in the mainly Hindu city of Jammu. Army spokesman D.L. Chowdhary said two hostages died in the gunbattle along with the rebels.

He says three soldiers and three other civilians also died in the shootout, which began Wednesday in a two-storey concrete building on the outskirts of Jammu.

Six hostages, including four children, survived.

Unrest has roiled the Himalayan region for two months and has left at least 42 people dead, many of them killed by soldiers who have opened fire on Muslim protesters demanding an end to Indian rule in region.

The violence is the worst to hit Kashmir in more than a decade.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for thorough and independent investigations into all killings that have occurred.

On Thursday, authorities lifted a four-day curfew for 90 minutes across the Kashmir Valley, allowing residents to buy food, medicine and other supplies after days of protests.

The unrest began in June when Muslims launched protests over a government plan to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir.

The plan was quickly scrapped, angering the region's Hindu minority, but the Muslim protests have continue to snowball into a broader anti-India movement.