Shanghai, Sept. 12 -- China will release five Indian nationals it detained earlier this month in a region bordering Tibet, state-backed tabloid Global Times reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources.

The five were Indian intelligence agents dressed as hunters, the paper said, disputing claims that they had been kidnapped.

Bilateral relations have been unusually tense since a clash at a disputed border area in June that killed 20 Indian soldiers, with an unknown number of Chinese casualties.

On Tuesday, following reports that five Indians from the state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China's Tibet, had gone missing, an Indian minister said that the Chinese People's Liberation Army confirmed they had been found in China.

Their d...