The government forces on Thursday called off the two-day long operation at Check Fatehkhan forest area of Halmatpora in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.Five militants and as many government force personnel, three of them army soldiers and two Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel, were killed during the operation which started in woods of the frontier district on Tuesday afternoon.Also, four government forces personnel including Sub Inspector (SI) Harvinder Singh, Javaid Ahmad of SOG, one army soldier and a CRPF trooper were injured.Sources said that early Monday morning some gunshot was heard soon after forces intensified the search operation to trace out the two remaining militants who were part of the group of seven. The forces also pressed sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters to find out the fleeing.Later, the operation called off after the search parties and the BDS sanitized the entire area, they said.The army had rushed reinforcement of 5 Bihar and 4 para commandos to the encounter site and had cordoned off the peripheries of the Halmatpora forests to prevent militants to escape. The encounter started when a group of militants believed to be seven in number fired upon a joint team of army and SOG at Check Fatehkhan forests on Tuesday afternoon. “We have recovered arms and ammunition in large quantity. All those killed are foreign militants,” said IGP Kashmir SP Pani. Prima facie it appears they are related to LeT: IGP told reporters. (GNS)