One soldier of the Sashastra Seema Bal (armed border force) was killed and eight others were injured after militants attacked a convoy in Kashmir's Zakura on the outskirts of Srinagar, ANI reported. Search operations are underway as the gunmen escaped after the "hit-and-run" attack.

Inspector General of the SSB Deepak Kumar said militants opened fire at the vehicles carrying the jawans while they were returning from patrol duty near a camp of the Central Reserve Police Force. Kumar added that three or four of them were critically injured. Officials had earlier told NDTV that the injured soldiers were out of danger. "Jawans retaliated, but they could not fire aggressively, given the civilian population in the area," Kumar said.

The SSB is one of India's Central Armed Police Forces. The strike comes two days after a three-day-long encounter at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute in Pampore, in which two militants were killed and two soldiers were injured.