Day After Top JeM Commander And IED Expert Killed, Forces Gun Down Three Terrorists In Shopian

Three terrorists have been killed in an encounter with the security forces in South Kashmir's Shopian district on Saturday.

The gunfight happened in the Amshipora village in Shopian.

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"A joint operation was launched early Saturday morning. The Security Forces were fired upon while laying the cordon, from the cow shed of the lone house in the orchard. A firefight ensued" the Army said.

The encounter broke out after a joint team of police and the Army cordoned off the area on the basis of a specific intelligence input about the presence of terrorists in the area.

As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where terrorists were hiding, they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the gunfight.

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In a related development, the Indian Army on Friday nabbed an intruder at the Line of Control (LOC) in Lam area of Nowshera sector in Rajouri district.

The gunfight came a day after three militants, including a self-styled top commander of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), were killed and two security personnel injured in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam.

One of them was identified as Waleed Bhai, a commander of JeM and an IED expert, while the identity of the other two was being ascertained.

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Waleed was active for the past one and a half years and was operating in South Kashmir.

In the past few months, the Indian security agencies have been stepping up their crackdown against Pakistan-backed terrorists in the valley.

At least 133 militants in different operations across Jammu and Kashmir including top commanders of different terrorist groups in Kashmir this year.

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However, the threat of militancy is still a matter of concern and recently there were reports of inputs about terrorists planning to carry out an attack on Amarnath Yatra.

"There are inputs that terrorists would try their best to target the yatra, but we have got our systems and resources in place to ensure that it goes on unhindered and peacefully," Brigadier Vivek Singh Thakur, Commander, Two Sector, said in a press conference in south Kashmir.

"We remain committed to ensure Amarnath Yatra will be conducted peacefully without any hindrance and the security situation will continue to remain under control," he said.