JAMMU: Two special police officers (SPOs), who had deserted the police force last month and joined militancy, were on Thursday shot dead in an encounter with Army troops in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir .

This is after four years that an encounter has taken place in Doda district, which has been almost free from any presence of militants.

On specific information, troops launched an operation in a remote Doda belt around midnight last night, PRO Defence, S N Acharya said on Thursday.

In the ensuing gunbattle, two militants were killed at 4:30am, Acharya said, adding, the bodies have been recovered along with one AK rifle and an INSAS rifle with some ammunition.

"Further details are awaited", he said.

IG (Jammu Zone) Danish Rana said the encounter took place early on Thursday in which these two special police officers (SPOs), who had deserted police force last month and joined militants, were eliminated.

Those killed in the encounter have been identified as Ghulam Nabi Mangnoo alias Maulvi code name Gulla Tailor and Raiz Ahmed, police officials said.

While Maulvi had surrendered as the district commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) before the police in 2010 and joined as an SPO, Raiz had surrendered as the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorist in 2010.

Maulvi had joined LeT in 2003 and Raiz joined Hizbul in 1999, they said, adding the duo deserted the police force in Doda on the night of September 7-8 along with an AK rifle and an INSAS rifle with 60 and 70 rounds, and again joined militancy.

"We were tracking them and today eliminated them in an encounter in Gadi Nallah. The area has been free from militancy for the past several years and these two SPOs had run away with weapons but we eliminated them within shortest period", Rana said.

In June 2011 encounter, two LeT militants were killed in a fierce gunbattle between the ultras and security forces.