A police spokesman confirmed two militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit were killed in the daylong gunfight in the Maloora village where searches are still being carried out. Indian troops early Thursday surrounded the village on a specific input about the presence of a group of heavily armed militants inside a house.

“As the security forces were busy combing the village, hiding militants opened heavy fire at the cordoning troops triggering a fierce gunfight,” a senior police officer said.

Earlier, the security forces had sent in village elders to persuade the holed up militants to surrender which they spurned. As the gunfight intensified, security forces evacuated civilians to engage the holed up militants in a sustained gunfight.

The security forces used improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mortar rounds to blast the house used by the militants.

One of the militants earlier jumped out of the house hurling grenades and firing indiscriminately at the surrounding troops.

Several journalists covering the incident had to run for cover. The officer confirmed bodies of two militants had been recovered, both of them foreigners, whose exact identities are being established.

For the first time in Srinagar, helicopters were used to help the troops to zero in on the location of the militants. Snipers on board the helicopters had also tried to target the militants. As the night fell, the operation was called off but a tight security cordon has been put in place around the encounter site where searches would be re-started early in the morning on Friday, according to police.

Unconfirmed reports said one of the militants may have escaped the dragnet during the operation.

Early this morning authorities had imposed a curfew in capital Srinagar and some other towns to foil a march to city center Lal Chowk called by the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani as part his “Quit Kashmir campaign.”

A complete shutdown was observed in other towns of the valley which were free from curfew today.