Five persons including two top militant commanders and an army soldier were killed in a 24-hour-long encounter in Dooru village near the north Kashmir apple-rich Sopore town in Baramulla district.

A senior police officer said in Srinagar [Images] that Omar Qari, the deputy chief operational commander of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, top Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Abu Faras and two other militants were killed in the 24-hour-long fierce gunbattle between the militants and the security forces in Dooru village, 55 km from Srinagar.

The officer said, "Troops of 22 Rashtriya Rifles and the special operations group of the state police surrounded Dooru village following specific information about the presence of a group of militants there late on Sunday."

"When the militants were challenged to surrender, they opened fire on the RR troops and SOG in which a trooper of RR was killed and a cop injured. In the ensuing gunfight four militants including Qari and Faras were killed. The search operation is still on," he said.