Three more terrorists were gunned down by the joint teams of security forces in village Khulchohar area of Anantnag early Monday morning, taking the total tally of terrorists killed to 17 in back to back operations since June 1 to 29.

According to police, one of the terrorists eliminated in the encounter hailed from Doda district. He has been identified as Masood Ahmd Bhat resident of Doda (District Commander of HM outfit) and other two unidentified terrorists are from LeT outfit.

Police claimed with the elimination of Masood, the Doda district has become  'militancy free'. Earlier, Doda was declared militancy free after the elimination of two LeT terrorists in June 2011. The landlocked district  started witnessing terrorist related incidents in September 2015.  Two SPO's had joined the ranks of a terror outfit.

“With today’s operation at Khulchohar in Anantnag by Anantnag Police along with 19 RR, CRPF in which two LET  terrorists including one district commander and one Hizbul Mujahideen commander Masood were neutralised, Doda district in Jammu Zone becomes totally militancy free once again as Masood was last surviving militant of Doda,” a police spokesman said.

According to police, the operation was launched on a specific input generated by Anantnag Police regarding presence of terrorists in village Khulchohar area of Anantnag. A joint cordon and search operation was launched by the JKP, 19RR and CRPF in the said area.

During the search operation, the hiding terrorists fired on the joint search party. The fire was retaliated leading to an encounter. In the ensuing encounter, 03 terrorists were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter.

 The dead bodies of the killed terrorists have been sent to Handwara for their last rites after conducting medico-legal formalities including collection of their DNA.