In May, Indian Army had decided to launch the biggest operation since the 1990s to weed out the terrorists from South Kashmir. Named “Operation clean-up”, it involved more than 4000 troops of Army, CRPF and J&K police participating in the combing operation.
Now it seems that the continued efforts of the security forces are bearing fruits with regular news of terrorists being eliminated from the infested area. Latest is killing of three Lashkak-e-Taiba terrorists in the Pulwama district of South Kashmir on Thursday. This encounter between the security forces and the terrorists lasted for about 6 hours.
This is yet another blow to the terrorists operating from South Kashmir after top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Junaid Mattoo and his accomplice were killed in Anantnag District on 16th June. Apart from the successful encounter, the security forces had managed to nab another terrorist from the site. Mattoo was reportedly trapped in the Arwani village for more than 8 hours as a joint team of the Army, J&K police and CRPF cordoned off the area. During the operation, the security forces also had to fend off threats from the stone pelters active in the area.
South Kashmir isn’t the only area where the security agencies are tasting success. Just yesterday two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were killed by the forces in Sopore of North Kashmir. This encounter was a result of a combing operation of the security forces comprising of the 22 Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operations Group and the CRPF.
Hizbul Mujahideen had also suffered another blow recently after Hizbul Commander Sabzar Bhat, who was a successor to Burhan Wani, was gunned down along with another terrorist in Pulwama District.
The army is also managing to foil the cross border infiltration attempts by the terrorists. According to reports, 13 terrorists have been killed recently while they were trying to cross the LOC into India. This has taken this year’s tally of foiled infiltration and terrorists subsequently killed to 22 and 40 respectively in recent weeks.