A police official said “a cordon-and-search operation was Wednesday morning launched on specific information about the presence of militants in the Sugoo village of South Kashmir’s Shopian district but hiding militants fired on the forces personnel who retaliated andhree militants were initially killed”, adding that ” two more militants were killed later as the exchange of fire continued till the operation was over”. He said “this is the third major gunfight in Shopian in four days. Nine Hizbul Mujahideen militants, including a commander, were killed in two gun battles with the government forces on last Sunday and the following Monday this week”.