Four militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Sunday morning, the Jammu and Kashmir police said. According to police officers, the four were operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

In the ensuing gunbattle, the four militants were killed. They were identified as Muzaffar Ahmed Bhat, who was district commander of LeT; Omar Ameen Bhat, Sajad Ahmed Bhat and Gulzar Ahmed Bhat. While Omar and Sajad were affiliated to LeT, Gulzar was with Hizbul, said police officials.

J&K Police DIG Atul Goel told reporters that the forces received a specific input about these militants Saturday night and they launched an operation immediately. “In the morning, the hiding terrorists tried to break the cordon. in the retaliation, four terrorists were killed,” he said.