NEW DELHI: A fresh encounter broke out on Thursday between security forces and terrorists in the Tral area of Awantipora, Jammu and Kashmir, as tensions remain high in the region.
“Encounter has started at Nader, Tral area of Awantipora,” the Jammu and Kashmir Police confirmed in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The development comes just days after three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were neutralised in Shopian during Operation Keller, a high-intensity counterterrorism operation. The trio, linked to the Pakistan-backed banned outfit LeT, included two locals—Shahid Kuttay and Adnan Shafi Dar—both from Shopian. Their family homes were demolished following the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, mostly tourists.
The identity of the third terrorist killed in the Shopian encounter is still being verified.
Following the operation, security forces recovered a significant cache of arms and ammunition, including assault rifles, grenades, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition—believed to have belonged to the three slain militants.
Operation Keller was launched after intelligence inputs from the Rashtriya Rifles indicated the presence of heavily armed terrorists in the dense forested area of Shoekal Keller. The operation marked the second major counterterrorism success in the Valley this year, following the elimination of a Pakistani terrorist in Handwara on March 16.
Security forces across the region remain on heightened alert amid a fragile pause in hostilities following Operation Sindoor, during which India carried out airstrikes on nine terror launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7.
The ongoing encounter in Tral underscores the volatile security landscape in Jammu and Kashmir, where infiltration attempts and terror activities continue despite intensified counterinsurgency operations.
