In an overnight encounter on Friday morning, 3 terrorists were eliminated by the joint security forces of the Indian Army and the Jammu and Kashmir police force in Srinagar. One of the terrorists was identified as Suhail Ahmad Rather and has been affiliated with the JeM (Jaish-e-Mohammad ) terror outfit while the other terrorists are yet to be identified. Arms and ammunition and other incriminating materials have been recovered from the site as well.
Suhail, as told in the Press Conference, was also involved in the Zewan Terror Attack. This took place when the militants resorted to heavy firing on the bus in a very heavily secured area that also had several camps of various security forces on December 13 this year.
Now, all the terrorists which were involved in the deadly Zewan attack on Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police personnel have been neutralized. The attack led to the death of three policemen also included a dozen more injured personnel.
The officials have also reported that around 4 security force personnel which included 3 policemen and 1 of CRPF ( Central Reserve Police Force ) were injured in the encounter which took place at Pantha Chowk on the outskirts of Srinagar around midnight.
With the three terrorists neutralized, overall nine terrorists have been gunned down so far in the past 24 hours. This was the third encounter within the last 2 days. 6 JeM militants were killed in two other encounters with the security force personnel in the Anantnag and Kulgam districts of J&K, two of them were identified as Pakistani nationals. The security forces had received information and a cordon and search operation was launched. The militants opened fire during the search to which the personnel retaliated which led to the encounters. A policeman was injured and the three terrorists were killed during the exchange of fire.
Lt General DP Pandey, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 15 Corps reported that the infiltration has gone down this year in Jammu and Kashmir from the other side of the border. He also said that the terror organizations are trying to recruit young kids who are 15-16 years old.
The officials have reported that the number of active terrorists in the valley has been reduced to less than 200 and the number of active local terrorists has come down to less than 100 which has happened for the first time in history. A lot of heavy arms and ammunition including 1 M4 rifle, 7 magazines of M4 rifles, 2 AK series rifles have been seized by the police.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been subjected to many terror attacks in the past. But the security forces have proved time and again that the Indian Armed Forces are not a joke and not a single attack on the nation will go unanswered.