PULWAMA: Four Army personnel, including a Major, were martyred on Monday in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

The slain terrorists were identified as Kamran, a Pakistani national and top commander of the Jaish, and Hilal Ahmad, a local recruited by the terror group, officials said.

The encounter went on for over 12 hours and involved multiple Jaish terrorists.

A joint team of Army's 55 RR, CRPF and SOG cordoned off the area in the early morning hours on Monday following credible inputs about the presence of some terrorists.

As a search operation was going on, terrorists fired on the forces, which led to a gunfight, police said.

During the encounter, four Army soldiers including a Major were killed. Those killed were Major DS Dondial, Head Constable Save Ram, Sepoy Ajay Kumar and Sepoy Hari Singh.

Sepoy Gulzar Mohammad was critically injured in the encounter and has been evacuated to Army's 92 base hospital Badamibagh Srinagar for treatment.

Two civilians were also killed during the encounter. The civilians were the owners of the house were the terrorists were reportedly holed up.

The encounter started early on Monday morning when terrorists engaged with the security forces in the Pinglan area of Pulwama.

This exchange comes merely days after 40 CRPF personnel were martyred in a deadly terror attack in Pulwama.