Three militants were killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday, the police said. One of the suspected militants, Tauseef Ahmad, surrendered before the security forces.

The Kashmir Zone Police tweeted that other militants were also given an offer to surrender but they turned it down and opened fire at the security forces.

The security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in Shopian’s Kanigam area after receiving information about the presence of militants, a police official said, according to PTI.

The official claimed that the militants were four newly recruited members of the Al-Badr outfit. However, there was no official confirmation on their affiliation to a militant group.

Earlier on April 11, three suspected militants, including a minor, were killed in Shopian’s Hadipora area. Two other militants were killed in Anantnag’s Bijbehara town on the same day. Five suspected militants were killed in Shopian and two others in Pulwama on April 9.