(Photo: ANI/Twitter)

SRINAGAR: Two terrorists including Lashkar's Junaid Mattoo have been killed in the Kulgam encounter by Indian Army, SoG and the CRPF, news agency ANI has reported.

They were among the three terrorists who were trapped inside a house in a village in south Kashmir's Bijbehara area and were challenged by the security forces on Friday morning.

A gunbattle had broken out between security forces and three terrorists of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to the police.

The encounter started at 10am after security forces, including Army personnel, cordoned off a house at Malik Mohalla in Arwani village following an intelligence tip-off that three terrorists were present inside, officials said.

Security forces cordoned off the house by 8am and there was a patient wait for two hours before the first fire came from the house at 10am, they said.

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Five civilians received pellet injuries when they made an attempt to stall the ongoing counter-insurgency operation, officials said.

Chatter from the terror group suggested that Junaid Mattoo, a local boy of Khudwani, was among the three trapped inside the house along with Azad Malik and a Pakistani terrorist.

Mattoo had gained notoriety after he shot dead two policemen in broad daylight at the busy Anantnag bus stand in June 2016. He was seen on CCTV footage carrying out the dastardly act.

Civilian killed near encounter site

A civilian was killed in the crossfire between the security forces and the three trapped terrorists.

The victim was identified as 34-year-old Mohammad Ashraf Khar. According to the police, he caught in the crossfire when the encounter started at 10am at Arwani village at Bijbehara of Anantnag district.

Khar, a resident of Kharpora Arwani area, was rushed to district hospital at Bijbehara where he was declared brought dead, the police said.

He had received a bullet injury in his chest..

Some people had started pelting stones on the security personnel immediately after the security forces laid a cordon around the house, located in densely populated Malik Mohalla of the village.

The accompanying teams of the local police and CRPF used tear gas shells and resorted to firing pellets after the crowd continued to hurl stones at the troops, thereby, hampering the ongoing counter-insurgency operation.

Seven people have been admitted to hospital with pellet injuries.

(With inputs from agencies)

