Srinagar, Jul 26: After the killing of three including a local militant by security forces in Sumlar-Aragam forests of North Kashmir’s Bandipora district, a massive search operation of security forces in the forest continued on the third consecutive day Monday.

A senior security official said  that the operation is being carried out jointly by Army’s 14RR, Para (SF), MARCOS (Marine Commandos) and paramilitary forces in the area.

“There was no fresh contact with the militants. The combing operation is still underway,” he said.

He said that the encounter that started on Saturday morning in the dense woods of Sumlar-Aragam  has so far seen the killings of three militants.

The officer said that the search operation would continue till security forces are satisfied about the presence of no militants in the area.

Officials said that it was an infiltration bid and the militants were hiding in the forest belt after entering this side recently, “we had stepped up vigil and launched searches.”

“During the searches, militants fired upon the search party, which retaliated leading to an encounter,” they said.

Officials said that in the ensuing encounter three militants were killed while arms and ammunition including rifles, magazines, pouches etc and incriminating material was recovered from the site of encounter. kno