The spokesman said that the Army jawan who laid down his life while fighting militants had received a grievous bullet wound during fighting on Thursday morning. (Representational image)

Srinagar: Two militants and an Army jawan were on Thursday killed in a fire fight raging in woods of Jammu and Kashmir’s northern Bandipore district.

Meanwhile, gunmen abducted an Army jawan while he was travelling in a private car to go home on leave to celebrate Id. The officials said that the soldier identified as Aurangzeb had boarded the car in southern Shopian where he was posted on his way to his home in frontier Rajouri district on Thursday morning. The officials said that an operation was launched against the militants in Bandipore’s Raynar forest area after militants attacked an Army patrol party in nearby Panar area last week. Two soldiers had sustained injuries in brief gun fight after the sneak attack.

After the incident, the Army reinforcement along with J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and central paramilitary forces launched a massive search operation in the area. On Wednesday, contact was established with the militants and early Thursday two militants and an Army jawan were killed in the encounter, the police sources said.

Confirming it, defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said, “Two terrorists have been killed, so far. Their identities and the group affiliation are being ascertained. We have lost one of our jawans during the encounter.” He also said that the bodies of the slain militants along with two AK assault rifle and ammunition have been retrieved. The spokesman said that the  Army jawan who laid down his life while fighting militants had received a grievous bullet wound during fighting on Thursday morning. He was rushed to the nearest military hospital but soon succumbed to his injuries. Two other soldiers had been injured in the clash earlier.

The police sources said that the slain militant was part of a large group of infiltrators who sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir after breaching the fence at the Line of Control (LoC) near Gurez sector last week. The group, the sources said, reached Panar using Chandaji and Bonkote track before they came across a group of soldiers six days ago.