An Indian Army anti-terrorist operation on Sunday led to an encounter with terrorists at the Hadal Gal area of Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar Sector.
The brief gunfight occurred when the Jammu and Kashmir police—assisted by the Indian Army—launched a cordon and search operation in the Khankoo forest located between Dachhan and Nagseni, following specific inputs about the suspected movement of terrorists, officials explained, as per a PTI report.
They added that the terrorists in hiding opened fire when they spotted the search parties, who retaliated.
This is the second such encounter with terrorists this month, following an Indian Army operation conducted with help from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Kishtwar's Kanzal Mandu on July 2.
Despite attempts to neutralise the terrorists—who were believed to be affiliated with Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)—they evaded the anti-terrorist operation.
“The exchange of fire continued for some time, but there have been no reports of any casualties,” the officials said about Sunday's encounter, adding that reinforcements have been rushed to the area.
The Indian Army's intensified operations at the mountainous region come amid a broader set of operations aimed at tracking down 40-50 terrorists said to be active in the hinterlands and along the borders in the Jammu region—particularly in remote areas south of the Pir Panjal range—explained official sources, as per another PTI report.
The report claimed that nearly 80 per cent of them were Pakistani nationals, citing intelligence assessments and ongoing ground reports.
Anti-drone strategies and intensified night operations together add to the anti-terror deployments put in place to "tighten the noose" around terrorism in the areas under focus. "They are finding it increasingly difficult to move and we will hunt them down, sooner or later," a source said in the report.