Srinagar/UNI: Security forces shot dead two local militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba in a gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Tuesday.

Police said one of the slain was allegedly behind the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit earlier this year.

Kashmiri Pandit Sanjay Sharma, who worked as an ATM guard, was shot dead by suspected militants in the Achan area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 26.

Additional Director General of Police, Kashmir Vijay Kumar said the two militants, identified as Morifat Maqbool and Jazim Farooq, alias Abrar, were killed in a Shopian gunfight on Tuesday, and one of them was behind the killing of Sharma.

"Terrorist Abrar was involved in the killing of Kashmiri Pandit Sanjay Sharma," Kumar said ADGP.

The gun battle erupted in the Alshipora area of Shopian during a cordon and a search operation that was launched by joint forces following an input about militant presence.

Police announced in a post on X that two LeT militants were killed in the encounter. The search operation is underway.