Three terrorists were killed by security forces in an encounter which broke out in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Sunday evening, the Indian Army said in a statement today.

The police, however, said that body of one terrorist has been recovered.

The gunbattle started after a patrol party of the Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police was attacked in Munda Qazigund, near the Guddar village in Devsar area of the district.

The patrol party had gone to the village after receiving specific information about a group of terrorists hiding in there. As they closed in, they came under heavy automatic gunfire from the hiding terrorists after which an encounter broke out.

The security forces had cordoned a cluster of houses. As they launched a search operation in the morning, the forces came under heavy firing from a house where 2-3 terrorists are believed to be trapped.

The search operation is still going on, said the police.

This was the third encounter in South Kashmir in last two days in which nine militants were killed.

With these killings, the number of militants killed in April this year has reached 26, news agency PTI reported. The overall count of the militants killed so far this year has risen to 58, PTI further reported.

The Indian Army, in two separate successful operations conducted within 24 hours from April 24 to 25, killed four terrorists at Anantnag and Pulwama districts.