GUWAHATI - Two policemen and a separatist guerilla were killed and a six-year-old child injured in a gun battle between security forces and militants in Assam Thursday, officials said.

A police spokesman said the gun battle took place between a group of militants belonging to the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and a joint team of the police and the army near village Sapekheti in Sibsagar district, about 390 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

‘Based on specific inputs about a group of ULFA militants taking shelter in a village home, a joint team of the police and the army launched an operation in the area that eventually led to an encounter,’ police official A. Das said.

The militants, estimated to be numbering at least four, fired indiscriminately on the security forces and there was heavy gunfire by both sides, the official said.

‘In the encounter, an ULFA rebel and two policemen were killed, while a six-year-old boy was injured in the crossfire,’ the official said.

At least three ULFA militants managed to escape.

Security forces recovered a huge quantity of explosives and firearms, including two kg of RDX, from the site.

‘A hunt is on to nab the fleeing ULFA rebels who probably were planning to stage some violent strikes in the area,’ the official said.

The ULFA is a rebel group fighting for an independent state in Assam since 1979.