Srinagar: Two men suspected of trying to enter India through the border were shot dead today (July 30) along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The army’s White Knight Corps based in Jammu said that the two suspects were spotted on Wednesday morning moving in the general area of Poonch along the LoC following which ‘Operation Shivshakti’ was launched and an exchange of gunfire broke out.

“In a successful anti-infiltration operation, alert troops of the #IndianArmy eliminated two terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control. Swift action and accurate firepower thwarted the nefarious designs. Three weapons have been recovered,” the White Knight Corps said on X.

It added: “Synergistic and synchronised intelligence inputs from own intelligence units and #JKP (Jammu and Kashmir police) led to a successful operation. Operation in progress”.

The officials have not disclosed the identities of the dead and their affiliations.

This is the third illegal entry attempt which security forces claim to have foiled this year in Jammu and Kashmir following the Pahalgam terrorist attack in which 25 Hindu tourists were singled out and shot dead on April 22 this year. A Kashmiri horse attender was also killed when he tried to resist the attackers.

This one comes just two days after security forces gunned down three suspected Pakistani militants at Lidwas in the upper reaches of Srinagar’s Harwan locality.

On July 29, Union home minister Amit Shah said in the Lok Sabha that all the three were Pakistani nationals and they were involved in the Pahalgam attack.

With summer at its peak, dozens of mountain passes which separate Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan become infiltration hotspots, keeping the security forces along the border areas on their toes.

On May 9, the Border Security Force (BSF) claimed to have foiled a major attempt to enter the country illegally along the International Border in Samba in which seven suspected militants were gunned down.

Security agencies had said that these men were provided fire cover by Pakistani rangers and a Rangers’ post was also destroyed across the LoC in the retaliatory firing.

Two men suspected to have entered illegally across the border were killed by the army along the LoC in Baramulla district of north Kashmir on April 23, a day after the Pahalgam attack.

The exchange of firing broke out at Sanjeevan in Uri sector of Baramulla following which the two were cornered and killed. The army claimed to have recovered “large quantity of weapons, ammunition and other war-like stores” from their possession.

At least 32 suspected militants, some of them locals, have been gunned down in encounters with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir this year while 10 security personnel have also lost their lives in insurgency-related incidents, according to South Asia Terrorism Portal.

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