Three militants of Lashkar-e-Tayiba outfit were killed in an ongoing search operation in the Handwara area of north Kashmir Kupwara district on Sunday.

A police spokesman said that acting on a specific information about the presence of armed militants in Wudder Payeen general area of Handwara, 7 Rashtriya Rifles unit of the army and police had launched a joint operation on August 1 which is going on.

He said, so far three militants of LeT outfit were killed in the ongoing operation and huge quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from the slain militants. "Search operation is still on", he added.

The spokesman identified one of the slain militants as Fahadulla, the divisional commander of the outfit. He said Fahadulla was involved in a number of militancy related incidents.