The anti-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district entered its fifth day today, as security forces continue to engage highly trained ultras entrenched in a vast forested area in Akhal Khulsan.
Officials said gunfire and sporadic explosions echoed through the area last night and continued into today.
The gunfight erupted on August 1 after the Army, police and CRPF launched a joint operation following a tip-off about the presence of a large group of terrorists in the Akhal area. In the operation so far two terrorists have been killed and three security personnel have been injured.
Security officials said the joint forces are treading cautiously even as drones continue to hit suspected hideouts in the forests. Helicopters are also hovering over the forest area.
They added the operation jointly carried by Army, Police, CRPF and elite Special Forces was being carried out in the more than three square kilometer forest area.
“The operation is being carried out in a very vast and dense forest area. Besides, the group of hiding terrorists have spread themselves in two to three small groups. We are going ahead very cautiously to ensure there is no causality,” a security officer said. “Additional forces have also been deployed to ensure a tight cordon around the vast forest area.”
Senior security officers were camping in Kulgam and monitoring the operation.This is the second major encounter in Kashmir in the last one week.
On July 28 security forces eliminated three Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in an encounter in the Harwan-Dachigam forest area on the outskirts of Srinagar. A day later Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament that the three terrorists were responsible for the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, where 25 tourists and a local pony rider were killed.
