Three terrorists -- one of them involved in the April 22 Pahalgam attack -- were on Monday killed in a fierce gun battle with security forces in the forests of Harwan near Dachigam in Jammu and Kashmir, according to reports.

Suleman, a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, was identified as one of the killers and the mastermind in the Pahalgam attack. Security sources have confirmed that he was gunned down in today's operation -- named Operation Mahadev -- along with two other terrorists: Abu Hamza and Yasir.

"Three terrorists have been neutralised in an intense firefight. Operation Continues," Srinagar-based Chinar Corps of the Army posted on X. Defence sources said the encounter began at 11 am.

All the terrorists, it is learnt, were "high-value" targets and foreign nationals. This is a joint operation by the Army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police, according to NDTV.

Security forces had launched a massive operation to track down the perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack that left 26 people dead, and intelligence inputs over the past month had suggested that the terrorists might have moved towards the Dachigam area, which is around 20 km from Srinagar's city centre.

However, it was not immediately clear if the three slain terrorists were involved in the April 22 attack.

The security forces, acting on an intelligence input, launched an anti-militancy operation in the Mulnar area of Harwan on Monday morning. Two rounds of gunshots were heard from a distance as security forces were carrying out searches of the area.

Reinforcements were rushed to the area, and the combing operations intensified, which led to the elimination of the three terrorists.