SRINAGAR: Indian army and police forces battled militants overnight in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing three of them, the army claimed on Tuesday, a day after suspected militants killed a top police official in the disputed Himalayan region.

Indian forces launched the joint operation Monday night after receiving information of militants hiding in a forest village in the Handwara region, army spokesman Lieut Colonel Nitin Narhar Joshi said.

After the two sides exchanged gunfire for hours, three rebels were killed early Tuesday, Narhar said.

There were no casualties reported among the troops.

None of the nearly half-dozen rebel groups in the region has issued any statement about the fighting, which followed hours after a top counterinsurgency official was killed, and two other police officers and a civilian shopkeeper were wounded in an attack in a crowded market on Monday.

The picturesque Himalayan territory of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan by a UN-monitored de facto border known as the Line of Control (LOC), but is claimed in full by both countries.