Two soldiers and four terrorists of the Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba outfits were on Sunday killed in an encounter at Frisal village of Kulgam in South Kashmir. Following the incident, separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik have called for a complete shutdown on Monday in Kashmir.

A civilian in whose house these terrorists were hiding also reportedly lost his life in the crossfire that lasted 10 hours.

Three other wounded soldiers have been rushed to the military hospital at Srinagar.

The martyred soldiers have been identified as Lance Naik (33 years) of Gujarat and Sepoy Raghubeer Singh (31 years) of Uttrakhand.

Reports said that several residents of the village started pelting stones at the troops, who had encircled the house in which these terrorists were hiding. About a dozen persons were injured in clashes with security forces and police.

Military sources said that seven terrorists had assembled in the house to plan some major strike but when the security forces on the basis of tip-off reached the village three ultras managed to escape.

A spokesman of the Army said that the area was being combed.

In another incident, a man trying to cut the electric cable of the anti-infiltration fence along the Line of Control in the Poonch sector of Jammu was wounded when he was shot by the troops.

Lt Col Manish Mehta, spokesman of the Army, said that the suspect cut wiring of three security lights and also damaged the fence.

The alert sentry of the Army challenged the man and later fired a shot at him. The injured man was shifted to the military hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, separatist leaders Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik have called for a complete shutdown on Monday in Kashmir to protest against the killing of the four terrorists. They also called for a march to Kulgam on February 15.

While the separatists criticised the police for opening fire at the civilians who were trying to disrupt the encounter, the local unit of the National Conference in Kulgam has sought a probe into the encounter.