SRINAGAR: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, police said.
Two Army soldiers were also injured in the exchange of fire in Kulgam's Chimmer village, they said.
While two militants were killed in the early exchange of fire, the third engaged the security forces for several hours before being neutralised, a police official said.
Giving details of the operation, a police spokesperson said a joint cordon and search operation was launched by the police, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Army in Chimmer after receiving information about the presence of militants there.
During the search operation, after the presence of terrorists was ascertained, they were repeatedly asked to surrender.
However, they opened indiscriminate fire on the joint search party in which two Army soldiers were injured.
They were airlifted to the Army's hospital in Srinagar, he said.
The security forces retaliated, the spokesperson said.
"In the ensuing encounter, three terrorists were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter.
They have been identified as Waseem Ahmad Bangroo, a resident of Redwani in Kulgam; Shahnawaz Ahmad, a resident of Kilbal in Shopian; and Zakir Bashir, a resident of Chimmer in Kulgam.
All of them were affiliated with proscribed terror group LeT," he said.
Bashir had recently joined the terror group, the spokesperson said.
According to police records, all three terrorists killed in the encounter were part of a group involved in various terror crimes, he said.