A terrorist has been killed in an ongoing encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district, the Army said this morning.

Security forces launched a search operation in the forest area in Akhal after receiving specific intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists on Friday. The search operation then turned into an encounter after the terrorists opened fire at the forces.

“Intermittent and intense fire fight continued through the night. Alert troops responded with calibrated fire and tightened the nooze while maintaining contact. One terrorist has been neutralised by the security forces so far. Operation (Akhal) continues,” Army’s Chinar Corps said in a post on X this morning.

The encounter comes days after three of the terrorists who carried out the deadly Pahalgam attack on April 22 were killed by security forces near Srinagar under ‘Operation Mahadev’.

They gunned down Sulieman alias Asif, the alleged mastermind of the attack, along with two of his associates, in an encounter at Mulnar in the Harwan area near Dachigam National Park on July 28. The other terrorists killed in the action were identified as Jibran, who was involved in the Sonamarg Tunnel attack last year, and Hamza Afghani.

26 people, mostly tourists, were shot dead by terrorists at Baisaran meadows in Pahalgam, which prompted the armed forces to launch Operation Sindoor on May 7 against the terror infrastructure in Pakistan.

On Thursday, two more terrorists were killed near the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch. Police said that the duo had infiltrated from Pakistan and were intercepted soon after they entered the Indian side.