UPDATE 5-Officer, civilians among 11 killed in Kashmir

(Recasts with end of hostage crisis)

By Ashok Pahalwan

JAMMU, India, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Suspected Muslim militants who slipped across the border from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir were shot dead by security forces after they killed six people in the Hindu-majority region of Jammu on Wednesday, police said.

The three militants disguised as policemen were holed up in a house for 18 hours where they killed three of nine hostages they were holding and set booby traps, officials said.

They had earlier shot dead two civilians and an army officer, before forcing their way into the house.

"The hostage crisis is over, all three militants have been killed," police officer Manohar Singh said. One injured hostage was rushed to a hospital, but fate of the remaining hostages were not immediately known.

In central Kashmir, two protesters were killed and more than a dozen injured when troops fired on protesters who police said defied a curfew and shouted pro-independence slogans.

Protests this month have convulsed the state of Jammu and Kashmir, sparked by a land row that has led to massive pro-independence demonstrations in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and strikes in the more peaceful Jammu region.

The crisis has strained relations between India and Pakistan, which both claim the region in full but rule in parts, damaging a tentative peace process and raising fears Kashmir could again become a hotspot between the two nuclear rivals.