Five people, including three policemen, were killed when a lone Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant on Wednesday made a bid to set free some Pakistani terrorists by attacking the high-security Central Jail in Jammu.

Security personnel retaliated and gunned down the militant.

The scooter-borne militant reached the gate of the jail at 10:30am and opened fire when some TADA detenues and undertrials were boarding a police vehicle headed for a nearby court, Deputy Inspector General of Police Farooq Khan told reporters.

In the ensuing encounter, three policemen, two civilians were killed and seven persons were injured.

The militant was identified as Mohammed Bilal alias Abu Asad Ullah of Askardu tribal area in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. A rifle, four grenades and some magazines were recovered from him. Some papers, which mentioned 'how to attack and how to escape', were also found on him.

Those killed have been identified as Assistant Sub-Inspector H L Sharma, Constable Naresh Kumar, Special Police Officer Sukhvinder Singh; and Charan Dass and another unidentified civilian, official sources said.

The injured are M H Shah, S S Dogra, Ashok Kumar (all constables); and Mohammad Zahoor, Narender Kumar, Bablu Kumar and Charan Dass. Three of them are in a critical condition in hospital.