Srinagar: Two army soldiers have been killed while two more were injured in one of the longest anti-insurgency operations in Kashmir which entered its ninth day on Saturday (August 9).

A senior official said that a crack team of the army swooped down on a suspected hideout of militants in Akhal forest of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district in the intervening night of August 8 and 9.

During the raid, the army came under intense firing and four soldiers suffered critical injuries. They were evacuated to a nearby hospital where two of them succumbed to injuries, while the other two injured soldiers are reported to be stable. 

The slain soldiers have been identified as lance naik Pritpal Singh and sepoy Harminder Singh. 

A spokesperson of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps said that the army “honours the supreme sacrifice” of the two soldiers who were killed “in line of duty for the nation”. 

“Their courage and dedication will forever inspire us. Indian Army expresses deepest condolences and stand in solidarity with the bereaved families. Operation continues,” the spokesperson said. 

The operation in Akhal forest began on August 1 when a team of J&K Police, army and central paramilitary troopers laid a cordon around a forested area following intelligence inputs about the presence of a group of militants there.

In the initial exchange of firing, the army claimed to have gunned down one suspected militant who was later identified as Haris Nazir Dar, a resident of Rajpora in Pulwama district. As per reports, another militant was gunned down later in the encounter. 

Till last reports came in, at least 10 army soldiers have been injured over the last nine days since the encounter broke out which is being closely monitored by J&K Police chief Nalin Prabhat and the Army’s Northern Commander Lt Gen Pratik Sharma.

According to reports, sound of heavy exchange of firing and blasts continued to emanate from the forested area during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday when the army suffered its first casualties in the encounter. 

The local administration has urged the civilians and livestock herders to keep away from the forest amid apprehensions of explosives having been set up by the remaining militants of the group who have evaded the security forces so far. 

Additional reinforcements have been rushed to the area, which has dense forests and difficult mountainous terrain that has apparently prolonged the operation, while helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs have also been deployed to prevent the militants from escaping.

Over the last nine days, the operation has expanded from Kulgam district to the higher reaches of Shopian and Anantnag districts in south Kashmir which fall in the foothills of the Pir Panjal range of mountains – a new hotspot of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir after 2019, when the erstwhile state was bifurcated and downgraded into two union territories.  

Security forces believe that a group of heavily-armed and highly-skilled militants are on the run in the Akhal forest after two of their associates were gunned down last week. 

The group, likely comprised of both locals and foreigners, according to sources, have kept the entire security grid of Jammu and Kashmir on tenterhooks ahead of the upcoming Independence Day celebrations. 

The operation in Akhal forestis the second major gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir since security forces claimed to have gunned down the three perpetrators of the Pahalgam terrorist attack on July 28 in the higher reaches of Srinagar’s Dachigam.

The encounter in Dachigam took place just three days after two infiltrators were gunned down along the Line of Control in Poonch district.

In the years after Article 370 was read down, Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and their affiliate terrorist groups have turned the girdle of mountains and dense forests circling the Kashmir valley into an active battleground.

Security forces have suffered heavy casualties in these areas, prompting the Jammu and Kashmir administration to close the Pir Panjal range of mountains, Lidder Valley and Sindh Valley for adventure activities in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22 this year.

Massive search operations have been launched to flush out suspects from the woods which triggered the latest encounter in Kulgam district.

On July 31, a cordon and search operation was launched by security forces in Qaimoh area of Kulgam following inputs about the presence of militants. However, the operation was later called off.

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