The encounter broke out on Friday evening when security forces received intel about the presence of militants in the forests. Gunshots were heard again at dawn on Saturday.

The encounter broke out on Friday evening when security forces received intel about the presence of militants in the forests. Gunshots were heard again at dawn on Saturday.

Srinagar: A militant was gunned down in an overnight encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, security officials said on Saturday (August 2).

According to the Jammu and Kashmir police spokesperson, a firefight broke out between a group of militants and security forces in a forested area of Akhal in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Saturday morning during which one militant was killed.

Sources identified the slain as Haris Nazir Dar, a resident of Rajpora in Pulwama district. According to sources, an AK-47 rifle, arms and ammunition were recovered during the operation. The affiliation of the slain militant was not immediately known.

The encounter broke out on Friday evening when security forces received intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in the forest following which a joint team of J&K police’s special operations group, Indian Army and central paramilitary forces was rushed to the area.

“As the forces closed in on the suspected hideout, they came under intense firing which was retaliated and additional reinforcements were rushed to the area to prevent the group from escaping,” reports quoting J&K police officials said.

The army said that “intermittent and intense” firefight continued between the two sides during the night. “Alert troops responded with calibrated fire and tightened the nooze (sic) while maintaining contact,” the army’s Chinar Corps said in a statement.

After the dawn broke on Saturday, gunshots were again heard in the area following which Dar was killed while a manhunt is on for his associates. “One terrorist has been neutralised by the security forces so far,” the Chinar Corps said.

The number of militants in the group has not been ascertained yet and the operation is underway in the area, the army said.

This is the second major encounter in Jammu and Kashmir since security forces claimed to have gunned down the three perpetrators of Pahalgam terrorist attack and it took place three days after two infiltrators were gunned down along the Line of Control in Poonch district.

On July 28, three suspected Pakistani militants involved in the Pahalgam terrorist attack were killed in the higher reaches of Srinagar’s Dachigam.

In the years after Article 370 was read down, Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and their affiliate terrorist groups have turned the girdle of mountains and dense forests circling the Kashmir valley into an active battleground.

Security forces have suffered heavy casualties in these areas, prompting the Jammu and Kashmir administration to close the Pir Panjal range of mountains, Lidder Valley and Sindh Valley for adventure activities in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22 this year.

Massive search operations have been launched to flush out suspects from the woods which triggered the latest encounter in Kulgam district, the second encounter in less than a week in Kashmir.

On Thursday (July 31) evening, a cordon and search operation was launched by security forces in Qaimoh area of Kulgam following inputs about the presence of militants. However, the operation was later called off.

Meanwhile, the body of a youngster was recovered from a forest in Haihama area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Reports in the local media said that the deceased, identified as Mohammad Aslam Khan, a resident of Kum Kadri in Haihama, had gone out with his cattle on Friday morning but he didn’t return home.

“When his family searched for him, his body was found in a nearby forest,” reports quoting an unnamed official said.

The body has shifted to a hospital in Kupwara for post-mortem examination and an investigation has been launched to ascertain the cause of his death.

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