Five Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), were killed in a fierce gunfight with terrorists during an anti-insurgency operation in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, officials said.

A heavy gunfight was underway in the Surankote area with at least four to five heavily armed terrorists who crossed into the country a few days ago, claimed NDTV.com sources.

The operation was launched in a village close to DKG in Surankote in the early hours following intelligence inputs about presence of terrorists, a Defence spokesman said.

The hiding terrorists fired on the search parties resulting in a fierce gunfight and critical injuries to a Junior Commissioned Officer or JCO and four other soldiers. They died from their injuries.

All five soldiers succumbed to their injuries.

The encounter with the terrorists was going on and further details are awaited, the spokesman said.

The officials said there are reports about presence of a group of heavily-armed terrorists in Chamrer forest after they managed to sneak from across the Line of Control (LoC).

Reinforcements have been rushed to the area to plug all escape routes to ensure the terrorists are neutralised, they said.

Meanwhile, in another part of the valley, two militants were killed and a policeman was injured during encounters in Anantnag and Bandipora districts on Monday, police said.

Security forces had launched a cordon and search operation at Khagund in Anantnag district's Verinag area following information about the presence of militants there.

The search operation turned into an encounter after militants opened fire on the security forces, who retaliated, he said.

The police official said that while one militant has been killed, a policeman suffered injuries.

He added that the operation is going on.

In another encounter, which broke out at Gundjahangir in Bandipora district's Hajin area, a Lashkar-e-Toiba militant was killed.

"Killed terrorist has been identified as Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar affiliated with proscribed terror outfit LeT (TRF). He was involved in recent civilian killing at Shahgund Bandipora," Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar tweeted.