Two army soldiers, including a para commando, and a militant were killed and another soldier wounded in an ongoing fierce gunfight in Ratnipora area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Tuesday.

Quoting a senior police officer, news agency GNS reported that a joint team of army’s 50 RR, 10 PARA, SOG and CRPF launched a cordon-and-search operation around 3 am in Ratnipora area following specific inputs about the presence of two to four militants

“During the initial exchange of gunfight, three soldiers suffered injuries and were immediately evacuated to army’s 92 base hospital, Badamibagh Srinagar where two of them succumbed,” the officer said.

He identified the slain soldiers as Sepoy Baljeet Singh and Naik Saneed of 10 PARA.The injured has been identified as Hawaldar Chander Pal.

He said that so far one militant has also been killed and his body was recovered from the site along with a weapon. The operation is still ongoing, he said.