After the 1984 Operation Bluestar, the Indian Army on Monday deployed an infantry combat vehicle for the second time in Jammu and Kashmir to flush out foreign terrorists from inside a famous religious place in Akhnoor. According to ground reports, after targeting an Army vehicle in the Batal area of Akhnoor early Monday morning, a group of heavily armed foreign terrorists stormed a religious place damaging several structures.

The elite commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) were also inducted in the ongoing anti-terrorist operation to neutralise a group of foreign terrorists holed up in the basement area of a religious place. In retaliatory firing, the religious place suffered huge damage.

The Army had deployed BMP-II, an Infantry combat vehicle in the operations after a gap of almost 11 years. The Army had earlier used tanks to flush out a group of fidayeen (members of a suicide squad) after they stormed inside the Samba army camp on September 26, 2013.

A targeted attack on an Army ambulance was the third such attack after the formation of the Omar Abdullah-led government on October 16. Swift retaliation by the Army prevented any loss of lives in the surprise attack. In the ensuing encounter that followed one terrorist was neutralised. The encounter that erupted shortly after 7 am, was still going on till the time of filing the report.

Preliminary reports suggested the group of foreign terrorists infiltrated from across the line of control in the wee hours and at daybreak they came across a group of students passing through the Batal area. As terrorists approached them and asked for a mobile phone the students raised an alarm. Before local villagers could gather the terrorists ran toward a local religious place in the Asan area.

After carefully assessing the ground situation the joint team of security forces cordoned off the entire area to flush out the terrorists from their safe hideout. During the day the security forces exchanged intermittent fire with the battle-hardened terrorists. The residents in the area were stunned to see the excessive use of firepower from both sides. The media teams were also kept at a safe distance from the site of the encounter.

The operation was put on hold late evening while additional forces were rushed to the area to maintain a tight cordon. Additional Director General of Police, Jammu range Anand Jain along with senior Army officers were camping at the site to supervise the anti-terrorist operations.

The Pakistan-based handlers of terrorist outfits have been using the same route in the past for infiltration inside the Indian territory. Similar attempts of infiltration were made in the first week of August 2024, official sources said.

Two soldiers and two porters were killed in action in the ambush near the Bota Pathri area of Gulmarg in Baramulla on October 24. On October 20, seven people, including one doctor and six other employees of the construction company, were killed after terrorists opened fire at a construction site in the Sonamarg area in the Ganderbal district. On October 18, terrorists killed Ashok Chauhan, a migrant worker from Bihar, in Shopian district. Chauhan's bullet-riddled body was found in the Waduna area of Zainapora by the locals.