Militants also snatched two wireless sets from a fire services vehicle, while the police apprehended two suspected ultras and seized a big cache of arms from a militant hideout in the state during the period, an official spokesman said here today.

Two security personnel were wounded when militants attacked their camp with rockets at Dharmari in Udhampur district last night.

Militants fired a barrage of rockets towards the security camp. While five rockets exploded mid-air and in a nearby field, two rockets landed inside the camp, wounding two jawans.

The sources said security forces returned the fire, forcing militants who had come closer to the camp, to run back. However, the casualties suffered by the militants in the retaliatory action was not known.

The also repulsed a militant attack on the Vilgam police station in Kupwara district. Militants fired heavily from their sophisticated weapons towards the police station. The police returned the fire. No one was injured in the shootout.

In another major strike, militants kidnapped six labourers and one PWD employee at the Bankote area of Banihal on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway last night.

The hostages, engaged in road repairs in the area, were taken to a nearby village where one of them, Abdul Gani Wani, was killed and three others were shot at and injured by the abductors.

The abductors left the scene leaving behind the injured labourers and their three other colleagues. The police reached the scene and removed the injured to a hospital.

Militants gunned down three persons — Zia Mir of Wudar-Bala-Handwara (Kupwara), Pervaiz Ahmad Sheikh of Addi-Bumai-Sopore (Baramula) and Nasir Ahmad Dar of Chechlora-Junzar (Badgam) in their houses last night. The motive behind the killings were not known.

Militants forced their entry into a fire services vehicle at Kralapora in Kupwara district and reportedly took away two wireless sets from it.

Meanwhile, two militants were apprehended by the local police from a hideout in Rajouri district.

The captured suspects led the police party to a hideout from where six rocket-projectile guns, four hand grenades, six detonators and two improvised explosive device switches were seized.