The ongoing conflict between security forces and militants in Jammu and Kashmir persisted on Saturday, resulting in the deaths of three militants in separate confrontations. In Anantnag district, two terrorists were killed during a gunbattle near Halkan Gali, while another was eliminated in the Khanyar area of Srinagar.
The first encounter took place in a wooded area of southern Anantnag, where security forces engaged a group of militants. The ensuing gunfight led to the deaths of two terrorists. The Indian Army’s Chinar Corps reported on X that the operation was a collaborative effort, highlighting the initial indiscriminate fire from the militants and the effective response from the troops.
In a separate operation, a Pakistani terrorist linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was killed in the Khanyar area of Srinagar. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation based on intelligence about militants in the densely populated area. The situation escalated into an encounter when the militants fired upon the search party, prompting a swift retaliation.
A senior police officer confirmed the slain terrorist’s nationality and his senior role within LeT. The encounter resulted in injuries to two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and two policemen, who were taken to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital, where their condition is reported to be stable.
These incidents follow a string of violent attacks in the region. Last week, militants ambushed an army vehicle, killing five individuals, including three soldiers. The week before, seven people died near a construction site for a strategic road tunnel to Ladakh, a high-altitude region bordering China.
According to the Indian Army, over 720 militants have been killed since the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s limited autonomy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019. The region remains heavily militarized, with about 500,000 Indian troops deployed to address an insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989. The recent encounters underscore the ongoing security challenges and the volatile nature of the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir.
