Army and Special Operations Group of Jammu and Kashmir have killed a militant believed to be an Indian Mujahideen cadre hailing from Kovalam in Kerala.

Central agencies had been monitoring certain leads which said a group of people hailing from Kerala along with Lashker-e-Taiba's support were trying to enter Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) through North Kashmir.

The information was shared with the army headquarters in the national capital and a plan was chalked out to nab the exfiltrating group with the help of the state police.

A militant identified as Shakeel Mohammed hailing from Kovalam was killed in the encounter that took place between Nine Para and Special Operations Group in Dever area of Lolab Valley in North Kashmir.

A hunt is on to track down those who have escaped after the encounter, sources said.

Shakeel is the first Keralite to have been killed in nearly two decades of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. A photo identity card was found from his pocket besides some religious writings written in Malayalam, the sources said.

A team of Kerala Police is scheduled to visit Kashmir valley soon for carrying out the identification process of killed militant.

The sources said the group is still scattered over the area and hunt was on to nab others with maximum efforts to nab them alive to ascertain the exact ramifications of Lashker's network in Kerala.

Another militant was killed in the same area but his identification showed that he was from Pakistan but was part of the same group that was exfiltrating into PoK along with a group of Keralites.

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