Srinagar, Aug 3 (IANS) After two terrorists were killed and another critically injured during the last two days, the security operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district continued for the third consecutive day on Sunday.

Joint forces, including the Army, CRPF and J&K Police, started a cordon and search operation (CASO) in the Akhal forest area of Kulgam on Friday following intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists in the area.

After cordoning the area, the security forces came under fire, and an encounter started in which one terrorist was killed on Friday, while the second terrorist was killed on Saturday.

Officials said the third terrorist was critically wounded. Senior police officers said on Saturday that the operation will continue since the number of hiding terrorists could be more than three.

The officials said firing exchanges continued intermittently during the night, indicating that either the injured hiding terrorist or more terrorists are responsible for the firing exchanges in the area.

Security forces are using drones, thermal imaging, etc., to help the cordoning ground forces close on the hiding terrorists.

Officials said the two slain terrorists are locals.

Security forces have been carrying out aggressive operations against the terrorists in the hinterland, while the Army has been on maximum alert guarding the Line of Control (LoC) in the union territory.

The elimination of three hardcore Pakistani terrorists responsible for the April 22 Pahalgam attack, in which 26 civilians were killed, is part of the aggressive operations being carried out by the joint forces.

Three hardcore Pakistani terrorists, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Suleman Shah and his two associates, Abu Hamza and Jibran Bhai, responsible for the Pahalgam attack, were killed on July 28 in the higher reaches of Dachigam national park on the foot of Mahadev mountain peak in Harwan area of Srinagar.

The Army code-named this operation as ‘Operation Mahadev’.

After the Pahalgam terror attack, the security forces are carrying out anti-terrorist operations against gun-wielding terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs) and sympathisers.

Drug smugglers and drug peddlers are also on the radar of the security forces because it is believed that the funds generated by the hawala money racket and drug smuggling are finally used to sustain terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

The coordinated and information-backed operations of the joint forces are aimed at dismantling the ecosystem of terrorism in the UT rather than focusing on just the elimination of the gun-wielding terrorists.

–IANS

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