The encounter continued till around 8 pm, and ended with three terrorists dead.

Three terrorists of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed were killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Tuesday, the second such encounter in the past one week. The encounter lasted over four hours and security forces recovered arms and ammunition from the site, Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh told NDTV.

Search operations were conducted after the encounter and the area was sanitized. The three terrorists were behind the killing of two Gujjar brothers in August, the senior police officer was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The security agencies in Kashmir received a tip-off about the terrorists being lodged in a house in Pulwama's Awantipora area. Soon after, the area was surrounded by security forces. They began searching the houses in the village and as they were closing in, the terrorists opened fire.

The security forces initially called on the terrorists to surrender. Once they refused, the forces returned fire. The ensuing encounter continued till around 8 pm, which ended with three terrorists dead.

With the encounter in Pulwama, the number of terrorists killed by security forces over the past week has gone up to six.

Last week, three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in Kashmir's Anantnag in an encounter that lasted over six hours. The terrorist had recently joined the Pakistan-based terror group, after leaving the Hizbul Mujahiddin.