Indian security forces have shot dead three suspected Islamic rebels in the Himalayan region of Kashmir overnight.
A police spokesman said the encounter in Gulabgarh in the southern Kashmir district of Udhampur erupted minutes after Indian troops surrounded the village following a tip-off.
"The militants were hiding in the village and opened fire at the troops to break the cordon," the spokesman said, adding all three were killed in the gunbattle.
"We are trying to ascertain the identity of the dead militants," he said.
In the neighbouring district of Poonch, security forces recovered 12 kilogrammes of explosives.
Over 37,500 people have died in Indian-Kashmir since an anti-India rebellion erupted in 1989. Separatists put the toll twice as high.
AFP