The security forces on Sunday widened their search in the dense forests of Kokernag for the “foreign militants” who had killed two soldiers in an ambush, amid news that one of the two civilians injured during Saturday’s encounter had died.

Police have indicated that the group of “three to four” militants had come from Doda — which witnessed a spate of attacks recently — trekking a long distance to Kashmir through a maze of mountains. Doda is part of the Chenab valley in Jammu, separated from Kashmir by the Kishtwar and Ramban districts.

It’s not clear whether the same group was involved in the July 15 carnage in Doda, during which an army captain and three soldiers were killed.

Making the forces’ task harder, the militants have refused to descend into the dense habitations and remain confined to the mountains, drawing an advantage from the hazardous terrain.

Officials said the death toll had risen to three after injured civilian Abdul Rashid Dar died of his wounds overnight. Another civilian and several soldiers, injured in Saturday’s gunfight, are being treated in hospital.

Kashmir police chief V.K. Birdi said the presence of civilians near the encounter site was being investigated. The army had earlier said the “terror antecedents of civilians” were being established, suggesting possible links.

“Their presence in the area and near (the) terrorists is a matter of investigation. We are investigating their role and involvement, if any,” Birdi said.

A resident, however, said the presence of civilians in the area was not unusual.

The army’s Kashmir-based Chinar Corps has identified the slain soldiers as Havaldar Dipak Kumar Yadav and Lance Naik Praveen Sharma.

A defence spokesman in Srinagar said the hunt for the militants was taking place at an altitude above 10,000 feet. A thick undergrowth, large boulders, and streams were posing a challenge, prompting the security forces to tread cautiously. It rained, too, in the area on Sunday.

“On August 5, it was confirmed through human and electronic means that terrorists responsible for atrocities in the Doda region in July had sneaked across the Kishtwar range into the Kapran-Garol area in south Kashmir,” the spokesman said.

The army’s Rashtriya Rifles and the police had relentlessly tracked the terrorists, leading to an operation being launched on Friday night.

The spokesman said a suspicious movement was observed around 2pm on Saturday, and a challenge was “immediately met with indiscriminate, desperate, and reckless firing from the terrorists”, resulting in injuries to soldiers and civilians.

The remote Ahlan Gagarmandu forest in the Kokernag belt, where the operation is under way, is where four security personnel including Colonel Manpreet Singh, Major Ashish and deputy superintendent of police Humayun Bhat were killed during a weeklong anti-militant operation last September.