Srinagar: With the killing of 5 terrorists last night, security forces have eliminated 41 terrorists, including 9 Pakistanis, in Kashmir in 2 months, marking a big success.
The slain terrorists included so-called ‘commanders’ of outfits like Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
The killed terrorists possessed sophisticated weapons, according to Defence Spokesperson.
Five of the terrorists were killed in 2 operations carried out through the last night — one in Pulwama district in South Kashmir and another in Budgam district in Central Kashmir.
Giving details, the Defence spokesperson said that on receiving specific intelligence of likely presence of two-three unidentified terrorists in Nyir area of Pulwama Saturday evening, a cordon and search operation was launched.
Initially, the cordon was laid around 20 houses, but as further intelligence was developed, a target house was identified, he said.
While the search was in progress, at 07:50 PM, contact was established with terrorists, when they opened fire on the troops, the spokesperson said.
The security forces immediately began evacuating the civilians present in and around the target house and occupied dominating positions around the house to block escape routes of the terrorists, he said.
“Around midnight, on 30 January 2022, security forces commenced probing actions to draw fire and ascertain the exact location of hiding terrorists,” the spokesperson said.
“The terrorists retaliated with heavy automatic fire from two different locations and three terrorists were effectively engaged and eliminated in exchange of fire by own troops,” he said.
A fourth terrorist opened indiscriminate fire on own troops and injured two Garud soldiers, the spokesperson said.
The injured soldiers were evacuated to Base Hospital, Badami Bagh Cantonment, in Srinagar and are stable.
The terrorist was finally eliminated by 5 AM, he said.
In the second operation in Budgam, security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the general area of Village Tilsar at around 9.30 PM, the spokesperson said.
The operation was launched targeting a specific cluster of houses on the fringe of the village, he said.
“At around 10:30 PM, while the (security) parties were searching the area after laying the cordon, the terrorist opened heavy fire on own troops from a shed resulting in a fierce encounter,” he said.
By morning, the security forces successfully neutralised the hiding terrorist.
As per J&K Police, a Pakistani terrorist and a self-styled JeM Commander of South Kashmir, Zahid Manzoor Wani, were among the neutralised terrorists.
Zahid was an IED expert and longest surviving JeM terrorist in the valley.
He was active in the area since May 23, 2017 and was responsible for masterminding many IED attacks on security forces, the spokesperson said.
“He (Zahid) was also responsible for misleading and recruiting as many as 20 innocent youth in the last few years” he said.
War like stores were recovered from the encounter sites, he said.
