"We are trying to avoid casualty. The area is very rocky and filled with natural caves. That is why it is taking time," Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor told reporters in New Delhi.

On asked for a time frame to flush out the militants, he said the army was trying to finish off the operation as soon as possible.

Earlier on Wednesday, a senior Army official had said the militants exchanging heavy gunfire with security forces in Bhati Dhar jungles of Poonch are suspected to be from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group.

"The holed up militants, who have been exchanging fire with the security forces for the last one week, seem to be from JeM based on the intercepts that we have got," Brigadier General Staff Brig Gurdeep Singh had told reporters in Mendhar in Jammu and Kashmir.