SRINAGAR: Three separatist guerrillas were killed and four security men injured in two separate gun fights between guerrillas and security forces in Kashmir on Thursday, police said.

“Three unidentified militants were killed in two separate encounters with police and security forces in Sopore (North Kashmir),” said a press statement issued by police.

“Sopore police, 27 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and 9 Para Regiment of the army launched a search operation in the forest area of Cherhaar following specific information about the presence of a group of militants there,” it said.

The first contact with the militants occurred ion Thursday, when militants hiding in the forest fired upon the joint search team triggering a gun fight.

“One unidentified militant was killed in the encounter.” Four security men were also injured in the gunfight, which has now ended. Searches were still on in the area.

In another gunfight in an orchard at Mundaji in Batengo village near Sopore town, two unidentified militants were killed.

The gunfight ensued on a tip-off about militant presence in the area, said a senior police officer.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has told a parliamentary panel that Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba continue to be the dominant militant groups in some areas of Jammu Kashmir.

Addressing the consultative committee of members of parliament attached to the home ministry that reviewed the security situation in the northern state here on Wednesday, Shinde said the two terror outfits were “mostly operating from the districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipore, Anantnag and Pulwama in Kashmir and Poonch, Ramban and Rajouri in Jammu region.”