3 Terrorists Shot Dead In J&K, 2 Soldiers Killed In Action In Another Op

Three terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district this morning, sources said.

The gunfight began in the Chak Taper Kreeri in the Pattan area of the north Kashmir district late Friday after a joint operation was launched by the Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir police based on specific intelligence input regarding the presence of terrorists. In a separate encounter, troops of the Army’s Rising Star Corps unit shot dead two terrorists in Kathua on Friday. “Large war-like stores were recovered after the operations concluded,” they said in a statement on X.

Earlier Friday, two Army personnel, including a junior commissioned officer (JCO), were killed in action and an equal number injured in an encounter with terrorists in the higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district. The gunfight broke out when a joint security party of the Army and police, acting on a tip-off, launched a cordon-and-search operation in the Naidgham area in the Chhatroo belt connecting Kishtwar with south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

Four Army personnel were injured in the gunbattle and two of them — Naib Subedar Vipan Kumar, a JCO, and Sepoy Arvind Singh — later died, the officials said, adding that one of the soldiers died of splinter injuries caused by a grenade explosion and another of a bullet injury in the head.

PM Modi’s Jammu And Kashmir Visit
These encounters happened ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mega poll rally in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district. Multi-tier security has been deployed across the twin districts of Doda and Kishtwar, particularly around the venue, to ensure a peaceful and smooth conduct of the election rally.

This will be the first visit by a prime minister to Doda in the last 42 years.

Voting in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections will be held in three phases – September 18, September 25, and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 8. This is the first Assembly election in J&K in 10 years, and the first since the abrogation of Article 370 – which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir – and Article 35A – which empowered Jammu and Kashmir’s legislature to decide who the erstwhile state’s permanent residents were.