Jammu, January 3
Heavily armed militants ambushed an Army convoy killing two jawans and injuring seven others, three of them critically at Darhal, 200 km from here, late last night, official sources said today.

The convoy was moving from a remote area to Rajouri when the militants attacked it, they said.

The militants hurled a grenade from the mountaintop and fired indiscriminately on the convoy, they said adding that the troops also retaliated.

In the ensuing gunbattle, two jawans were killed and seven injured, they said adding the militants escaped towards the upper reaches.

The area was cordoned off and combing has been launched to nab the militant behind the attack.

Meanwhile, in a gunbattle between security forces and extremists in the Badr area of Udhampur district early today, two persons, including one Jaish-e-Mohammad militant were killed, they added.

Mounting pressure on militants after the December 13 attack on Parliament, security forces gunned down top commanders of the Jamait-ul-Mujahideen (JuM) and the Tehrik-ul-Jehadi (TuJ) and destroyed two militant hide-outs in the Kashmir valley overnight.

Militants kidnapped three forest officials in Kupwara last evening.

Official sources said a battalion commander of the JuM Kamal Mir alias Khalid was killed in an encounter with security forces at Watlab in the north Kashmir while two foreign militants were killed during a search operation at Pinjoora in Shopian of south Kashmir today.

Mohammad Hussain who allegedly was injured in security forces firing after a grenade blast at Magarmal Bagh yesterday died in the hospital early today.

A Defence Ministry spokesman told UNI here that troops, on a tip-off, sealed village Khurhama in north Kashmir last afternoon, in a bid to nab militants and those who harboured them.

As the security forces were about to storm the house where the militants were reportedly holding a meeting, they came under heavy fire from inside the house.