Six militants have been killed and one soldier hurt in the recently-launched 'Silver Strike' operation, put together to clear militants from the Poonch border district's Surankote sector, Brigadier M K Kushwaha told reporters on Wednesday. Militants have used this area as a safe haven in Jammu and Kashmir.

The army plans to clear the entire Surankote-Darasangla belt of militants by the end of May. Their intelligence suggests that the militants may have set up hideouts and bunkers in the area, Brigadier Kushwaha, who heads the operation, said.

The army used the latest surveillance equipment to learn the pattern of militant movement, Kushwaha said.

After the pattern was established and intelligence corroborated, the special forces and Romeo force moved in. Two militants, Yassa bhai and Arbai of the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen and Hizb-e-Islami were killed following a 24-hour operation early Wednesday, he said, adding that this brought the total number of militants killed in this operation to six. One soldier was injured in the incident and one militant, who was injured in the battle, escaped, he said.

Kushwaha said special forces would be used in a pattern similar to that used in last year's operation, Sarp-Vinash, in the Hill Kaka belt of Surankote area of Poonch district. That operation had cleared the Hill Kaka area in Surankote and claimed the lives of 65 militants.

Kushwaha said that the morale of militants was down and they were on the run following the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and the construction of electric fencing on the border. This had stopped the supply of manpower, arms, ammunition and money, he said.