New Delhi, In separate incidents, one soldier lost his life and two were injured as the Indian security forces killed nine terrorists, including four from the Hizbul Mujahideen, in the last 24 hours in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Over the past 24 hours, Indian security forces have eliminated nine terrorists in J&K," a defence source said.

Among the nine, four Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed at Batpura area of South Kashmir on Saturday. They were involved in the killing of civilians.

The four Hizbul Mujahideen militants, according to the sources, were killed in day-long encounter.

"On specific intelligence, a joint operation by the CRPF and the SOG (Special Operations Group) Kulgam was launched in Kulgam. In a day-long encounter four hardcore militants of the HM group have been killed and large cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from them," the defence source said.

This group was allegedly involved in the recent incidents of civilian killings.

Militants killed in the Kulgam Encounter are identified as Aijaz Ahmed Naiko (Moosa) from Kulgam, active since 2018; Shahid Ahmed Malik (Kulgam) and active since 2019; Waqar Farooq from Kulgam and missing since last month; and M. Ashraf Malik (Sadam) from Anantnag.

In another ongoing anti-infiltration operation in the Keran Sector of North Kashmir, troops have so far killed five terrorists attempting to infiltrate from across the Line of Control, taking advantage of the bad weather.

"In this operation, one soldier was killed and two more are critically injured. Evacuation of the injured is hampered due to heavy snow and rough terrain conditions," said the source .

The operation in north Kashmir is still in progress.