Two Army soldiers were on Thursday martyred and a Pakistani terrorist killed in an encounter in the Dadal village near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Rajouri district of Jammu.

With this, the number of terrorists killed across J&K in the past 24 hours has gone up to seven.

An Army source said that based on information regarding the presence of a small group of suspicious armed persons near village Dadal search operations were launched last evening. During the night exchange of fire occurred in which one soldier received minor injuries and was evacuated.

However, reports of the martyrdom of two soldiers were received today evening. Four terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfits were neutralized in back to back two separate overnight operations in Pulwama and Kulgam districts of South Kashmir on Thursday.

Rashtriya Rifles, J&K Police and CRPF launched multiple mobile vehicle checkpoints on receiving inputs regarding the movement of terrorists in the area. At 3 am a white Maruti Car was asked to stop for checking. The terrorists on seeing the troops started firing and ran towards the adjoining forested area. The area was immediately cordoned off and a firefight ensued.

In the joint operation two terrorists, Shahbaaz Ahmad Shah of JeM active since 11 July 2020 and Nasir Ayub Pandit of LeT active since 5 June 2021 were neutralized.

One AK-47 and one pistol with a large quantity of ammunition were recovered.

In a separate operation, based on specific intelligence of police, troops of Panzgom based Rashtriya Rifles, J&K Police and CRPF laid a cordon around a built-up area in Puchhal, Pulwama. At 12.30 am, terrorists lobbed grenades on the cordon party and tried to escape. However alert troops immediately retaliated and foiled the escape bid.

Call for surrender was made but the terrorist retaliated by firing and lobbing grenades at the security forces. In the ensuing gunfight, two terrorists of LeT were eliminated. They have been identified as Kifayat Sofi and Inayat Ahmad Dar of Pulwama district.

IGP (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar congratulated police and security forces for conducting operations without collateral damage. One AK-47and one pistol and other warlike stores were recovered from the encounter site.

According to the police all of these terrorists were involved in threatening the civilian population and extortion of money.

Meanwhile, the Army killed a Pakistani terrorist and foiled an infiltration bid in the Naoshera Sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu region.

An army spokesman said that; “In the early hours of 7 July, a group of Pakistani terrorists made an attempt to infiltrate across the LoC in the Naoshera Sector, District Rajouri. Alert Army troops thwarted the infiltration bid by suitably employing an integrated surveillance grid along with domination by fire and engaging the terrorists in a fierce firefight in which one terrorist was neutralised and his body has been recovered. Also, warlike stores including an AK 47 rifle, four magazines of AK 47 with ammunition and two hand grenades have been recovered from the terrorist”.

In another incident, improvised explosive device material was recovered from a man in Archandrama near the railway station in the Magam area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district.

The police during surprise checking at Archandarhama Magam near railway crossing, intercepted a person and recovered explosive substance weighing 1.2 kgs and 2 electronic detonators from his bag.

The arrested terrorist associate was involved in providing logistics and other material support to terrorists of proscribed terror outfit LeT in various areas of Budgam.

He has been in touch with Pakistani terror commanders through various social media platforms and was also in touch with LeT self-styled terror commanders in Kashmir, police said.