In a major crackdown ahead of the Amarnath pilgrimage, security forces in Kashmir have gunned down 100 terrorists, 29 of them Pakistanis, in the past five months.
Speaking about the security scenario, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said, on Monday, that 71 of the terrorists killed by the security forces were locals.
Pakistan-backed terror outfits, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), suffered maximum losses with the killing of 63 and 24 terrorists respectively.
“100 terrorists (71 local, and 29 foreign) killed in different encounters in 5 months and 12 days this year in 2022,” said the IGP.
The IGP said this was double the number of terrorists killed during the corresponding period last year. “Fifty terrorists including one foreigner were killed in the terrorism operations in the same period last year.
Ten Pakistani terrorists were shot dead in different encounters during the past few days. Three Pakistani terrorists of JeM were killed in an encounter in north Kashmir’s Baramulla on 25 May. Another Pakistani terrorist of LeT was gunned down in Kupwara on 7 June.
Pakistani terrorists were also killed in encounters in the Jammu division.
Meanwhile, alert troops of the BSF, on Sunday night at 9.30 pm, observed a suspicious movement close to the international border in the Arnia Sector. The BSF troops challenged the miscreants who opened fire. The BSF retaliated by firing a few bursts toward them making them flee.
Pakistani drones have been dropping sticky bombs in the border areas of Jammu suspected to have been used by terrorists during the Amarnath pilgrimage.
In two separate encounters in Pulwama and Srinagar on Sunday, four local terrorists were gunned down. Two of the slain terrorists were involved in the killing of three policemen in the past couple of days.