A crack team of the Indian Army led by the elite Para Commandos Monday achieved a major success by eliminating three heavily armed terrorists, believed to be Pakistani nationals involved in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, without suffering any collateral damage in the Lidwas forest area, on the outskirts of Srinagar.
To avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 tourists, including a local pony wallah, were killed, the security forces have intensified anti-terror operations across different districts of the Kashmir valley for a long time.
The latest input about the presence of a heavily armed group of terrorists in the Lidwas forest area was developed by the security forces after tracing one of the encrypted calls made by the terrorists hiding in the upper reaches near the ‘Mahadev’ peak. The operation, code-named ‘Mahadev’, was launched swiftly early Monday morning to eliminate them.
First of all, the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps of the Indian Army confirmed that three terrorists were killed in a fierce gunfight. “Three terrorists have been neutralised in an intense firefight. Operation continues,” China Corps wrote on X.
Late afternoon, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range VK Birdi told reporters, “It is a prolonged operation and is continuing in which J&K police, paramilitary and army have an exchange of fire (with terrorists) in higher reaches. As per the interior reports, three bodies are being observed and seem to be neutralised. It is an ongoing operation and I would not like to divulge much at this moment. We will share details with you at an opportune time. It will take us some time for identification and all that. The (security) parties are still inside”.
Late in the evening, Kashmir Zone Police again posted on X, “The identification of the neutralised terrorists is being done! Please await further details”.
However, unconfirmed reports claimed one of the three foreign terrorists has been identified as Suleiman Shah, believed to be involved in the Pahalgam terror attack. Media reports claimed Suleiman Shah had previously served in the Pakistan Army.
Later, he joined the ranks of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Following the attack in Baisaran, the Jammu and Kashmir Police announced a ?20 lakh reward for credible information leading to his whereabouts. The other terrorists killed in the operation have been identified as Jibran and Abu Hamza.
At the time of filing the report, operation was continuing.
Additional reinforcements of the army and other security forces have been rushed as intelligence inputs suggested the presence of another group of terrorists in the area.
According to a highly placed official source, one of the slain terrorists, Jibran, was allegedly involved in last year’s terror strike at the Sonamarg tunnel project at Gagangir in October last year. Seven people, including a doctor, were killed in the attack.
One M4 carbine rifle, two AK rifles and 17 rifle grenades were recovered from the site of the encounter.
According to reports, the group of terrorists was caught napping when the elite para commandos eliminated them. The terrorists were hiding inside a makeshift trench hideout under a tree, concealed by dense foliage in the forest.