SRINAGAR: Indian security forces have killed two militants in a gunbattle in the restive region of Kashmir, including a “most wanted” commander from a Pakistan-based group, a police officer said.

The militants were identified on Thursday in the village of Keller, 50 kilometres south of Srinagar, police superintendent Mumtaz Ahmad told AFP.

A top local commander of the Pakistan-based Jaish-i-Mohammad militant outfit named as Qari Zubair was killed in the ensuing firefight along with his bodyguard.

“Qari Zubair was active in south Kashmir for the last five years and was one of the most wanted foreign militants,” the police officer told AFP late Thursday, adding that Zubair was a Pakistani.

In April this year, local chief of Jaish-i-Mohammad Sajjad Afghani and his bodyguard were shot dead by police in a gunfight along the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar.

Thursday's killings took to six the number of suspected militants shot dead by Indian troops in the Himalayan region since Monday.

India blames Pakistan for backing the militants in Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies.