An army soldier was killed while another was injured in a militant attack near the Line of Control (LoC) at Keran sector in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Thursday.
The army said militants attacked their patrol near the LoC fencing in Keran sector.
"In a standoff attack by terrorists on link patrol ahead of the LoC fence in Keran, two soldiers suffered non-fatal injuries. Own troops retaliated. Operation in progress," defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.
Among the injured, sources said, Sepoy Sukhvinder Singh succumbed at the army's 92-base hospital in Srinagar, while the other soldier is battling for his life.
Sources said that army's 6-Rashtriya Rifles intercepted a group of militants believed to be infiltrators near Kacchal Post in Keran sector adjacent to Chowkibal forests at around 7.15 am.
As the soldiers challenged the militants believed to be three to five in number, they opened indiscriminate fire triggering off a gunfight, they said.
The attack comes on a day when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh began his two-day visit to the state to review the security situation.
In Srinagar, he announced that the Centre would withdraw all stone-pelting cases against children in J&K.
Singh, who is accompanied by Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and other senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs, is scheduled to visit the border district of Kupwara on Friday morning.
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