An operation being carried out by security forces in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district, in which at least one militant was killed and two soldiers injured so far, has entered its third day on Sunday.
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Officials said that intermittent exchanges of fire between security forces personnel and militants continued on Sunday, after the joint team of forces cordoned off Akhal village in Kulgam on Friday.
Police and Army personnel believe that a group of four to five militants are trapped in the area, officials said. One militant was killed on the first day of the gunfight.
Over the last two days, two soldiers have been injured in the exchange of fire. They were rushed to hospital and their condition is said to be stable.
On Friday evening, a joint team of Jammu and Kashmir Police, the Army and paramilitary forces cordoned off Akhal village in south Kashmir after getting inputs about the presence of militants in the area. As the joint team of forces zeroed in on the target area, militants opened fire, leading to a gunfight, officials said.
Soon after the exchange of fire, security forces rushed reinforcements to Akhal, and the cordon of the area was expanded to prevent the militants from escaping.
This is the second major gunfight reported in Kashmir in the past week. Last week, three Pakistani militants were killed in a firefight in a mountainous area on the outskirts of Srinagar.
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah later said in Parliament that the militants killed in that gunfight were responsible for the April 22 terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, where 25 tourists and a local pony rider were killed in the Baisaran meadow. The incident had drawn widespread condemnation and escalated tensions between India and Pakistan. It also led to an intensified crackdown on militancy in Kashmir.
