A terrorist was killed during an ongoing encounter between security forces and militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Saturday, the Indian Army said. The operation, codenamed ‘Operation Akhal’, began late Friday night and continued into Saturday morning in the Akhal area of the district.
“Intermittent and intense fire fight continued through the night. Alert troops responded with calibrated fire and tightened the nooze while maintaining contact. One terrorist has been neutralised by the security forces so far. Operation continues,” the Army’s Chinar Corps posted on X.
This marks the third major counter-insurgency operation in Jammu and Kashmir within a week, bringing the total number of militants killed in recent encounters to six.
The sequence of operations began on 28 July, when three Pakistani militants were killed in the Lidwas forest near Harwan, on the outskirts of Srinagar. Security forces said the encounter, under ‘Operation Mahadev’, targeted those responsible for the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack.
One of the slain militants was identified as Suleiman, described by officials as the mastermind of the Pahalgam incident. The other two were named Afghan and Jibran. All three were said to be senior operatives of the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The next operation took place on the night of 30 July, when security forces intercepted a group attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control in the Kalsian-Gulpur area of Poonch district. The ensuing gunfight continued into the following day. Under ‘Operation Shivshakti’, two militants were killed.
The latest operation in Kulgam, under ‘Operation Akhal’, is the third in this series. It began late on 1 August and had resulted in the death of one militant as of Saturday morning, with search and engagement operations still underway.
Together, the three operations reflect an intensified phase of counter-militancy activity across different regions of Jammu and Kashmir in recent days.
