Srinagar: The army on Tuesday (October 14) said it has gunned down two suspected militants along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district in an ongoing operation.

According to a Srinagar-based defence spokesman, an army patrol noticed suspicious movement in a forward area in Macchail sector of the frontier Kupwara district on Monday evening and an exchange of gunfire ensued.

“Alert troops spotted suspicious activity and challenged, which resulted in terrorists opening indiscriminate fire. Troops responded with effective fire, neutralising two terrorists. Large quantity of weapons and equipment recovered,” the army’s Chinar Corps said on X.

Operation is in progress, it added.

The army said that the intelligence about the suspects was provided by J&K police and corroborated by “sources and agencies”.

The identities of the slain and their affiliation has not been ascertained yet. 

The 700-odd kilometre de-facto Line of Control which splits Jammu and Kashmir into two witnesses a spike in infiltration attempts before the onset of harsh winter when heavy snowfall makes the mountain passes inaccessible for infiltrators, according to security agencies.

The operation in Kupwara, named ‘Op Amar, took place a week after the army lost two para commandos in an anti-terror operation in Kokernag forests which separate Chenab region from Kashmir valley. 

In the intervening night of October 6 and 7, Lance Havildar Palash Ghosh and Lance Naik Sujay Ghosh went missing in the Kishtwar range when an army team faced harsh weather and whiteout conditions, officials said.

Their bodies were recovered after an intensive search and rescue operation which lasted three days.

On September 19, an army soldier who was critically wounded in an encounter in Dudu Basantgarh area in the upper reaches of Udhampur district along the border with Chenab valley succumbed to injuries. 

An unidentified militant was killed on September 8 in an anti-militancy operation in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district in which a junior commissioned officer among three soldiers suffered injuries. 

In recent years, Chenab valley which is spread over rugged terrain comprising natural caves and lush mountains that separate Jammu from Kashmir valley has emerged as a new hotspot of militancy in the Union territory.

Earlier, two soldiers were killed by militants while two more suffered injuries in the intervening night of August 8 and 9 in Kulgam district where security forces battled a group of heavily armed militants for 12 days in one of the longest anti-insurgency operations in the valley.

At least 18 members of various security forces and 30 civilians have been killed in 30 incidents of militancy-related violence in Jammu and Kashmir this year. Forty-two suspected militants have also been gunned down during this period, according to an estimate by South Asia Terrorism Portal.

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