Two militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were killed in an encounter with government forces in Shopian district of south Kashmir on Monday, officials said.They said a joint team of army’s 1st RR, 44 RR, 178 battalion and SOG laid a siege at Khojpora area of Reban during the intervening night of 8 and 9 March.A police spokesperson said that the cordon-and-search-operation was launched following specific inputs about the presence of militants hiding in the village.“During the search operation hiding militants tried to break the cordon by firing indiscriminately upon the search parties. The troops immediately took cover and retaliated,” he said, adding during the hiding militants were neutralized.The slain were identified as Shabir Ahmad Malik alias Abu Maviya who was active since December 2017 and Amir Ahmad Dar of Wadina Melhoura who was active since 2019.During searches, 01 AK -47, 01 UBGL, 01 AK-47 magazine, 01 Chinese 5 pistol, 01 magazine of Chinese pistol and 05(No’s) 9 mm live rounds were recovered from the encounter site, he said.In this connection case (FIR No. 11/2020 U/S: -16, 18, 19 ULA (P) Act, 7/27, I Arms ACT, 307 1PC), has been registered in police station Zainapora and the investigation set into motion, he said.A resident of Tungduno Yaripora, Shabir according to the spokesman was Pakistan trained militant and was involved in various militant related cases in south Kashmir including case FIR NO. 22/2018 U/S:-13, 20 ULA (P) ACT, FIR N0. 73/2019 U/S 13 ULA (P) ACT, 506 RPC, 7/25 I Arms ACT, FIR No 17/2019 U/S:13, 18, 19, 38 39 ULA (P) ACT of Police Station Yaripora of District Kulgam.Both the militants were involved in case FIR No. 58/2019 U/St-16 ULA (P) ACT 436 RPC, 7/25 I A ACT of Police Station Zainapora District Shopian, he said.He said people are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials if any, the spokesman added. (GNS)