From correspondents in Jammu and Kashmir, India, 09:32 PM IST

A top Hizbul Mujahideen guerrilla was killed Friday in an ongoing fierce gunfight with security forces in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, very near the railway track to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday.

The Hizb commander, identified as Moin, was killed. He is among the four guerrillas reportedly hiding inside two houses in a village surrounded by security forces, barely 200 metres away from the Anantnag-Srinagar-Rajwainsher rail track.

Police said troops of the 55 Rashtriya Rifles and the special operations group (SOG) of the local police have surrounded two houses in Kelan village of Pulwama district, 44 km from here.

'The gun battle is still going on in the area,' a senior police official told IANS from Pulwama district on phone.

However, an official said: 'The encounter site is far away from the railway station where the flagging off ceremony would be held by the prime minister tomorrow.'

(Staff Writer, © IANS)