Two soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and two terrorists were killed and a soldier injured in an encounter in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Monday.

An army official said a joint cordon-and-search operation was launched by police, CRPF and army in the early hours today in the Guddar forest area following specific intelligence input about the presence of terrorists in the area.
According to the Army, the troops noticed suspicious movement and challenged the suspects.
The terrorists fired on troops. The fire was returned by the troops, triggering an encounter.
In the initial gunfight, a terrorist was killed and three soldiers including a JCO were injured.
The injured soldiers were evacuated to military hospital, where two of them succumbed to injuries.
The deceased soldiers were identified as Subedar Perbhat Gaur and Lance Naik Narender Sindhu.
A security official said during the search operation, security forces again established contact with the hiding terrorists and a terrorist was killed in the ensuing firefight.
The identity of the slain terrorists is being established.
Soon after the firing, additional reinforcements were rushed to Guddar and neighbouring Malwan to tighten the cordon around the forest area.
Police said the operation was still in progress.
Last month, Kulgam witnessed one of the longest anti-militancy operations in recent years, when security forces battled militants in the Akhal forests for 12 days. The operation ended with the killing of a local Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, while two Army soldiers also lost their lives in the gunfight.