After Pahalgam Attack, 21 Terrorists Killed In 6 Separate J&K Encounters
Following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, counter-terror operations by security forces have led to the killing of 21 terrorists in six separate encounters across Jammu and Kashmir. The operations, carried out jointly by the Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), and Jammu and Kashmir Police, targeted both foreign and local terrorists.
Twelve of the terrorists were Pakistani nationals, while nine were local recruits. According to intelligence sources, the overall number of active local terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir has dropped following these operations.
Breakdown Of Operations And Terrorists
Operation Akhal: Kulgam Encounter
The most recent operation, codenamed Operation Akhal, was conducted in Kulgam nearly 70 km from Srinagar. It resulted in the elimination of three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists:
1. Zakir Ahmed Gani - Resident of Kulgam. Joined Lashkar-e-Taiba on September 29, 2023.
2. Adil Rehman Dentu - Resident of Sopore. Joined LeT on March 5, 2021. Classified as a Category-A terrorist.
3. Harish Dar - Resident of Pulwama. Joined LeT in June 2024. Listed as Category-C terrorist.
Security forces said that this group had recently been reactivated for local recruitment and planning logistical support for cross-border infiltrators.
Encounter 1: Sambha Sector - Jaish-e-Mohammed Module
In an encounter in the Samba district, BSF troops eliminated seven Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists, all Pakistani nationals. This encounter was one of the most lethal for the JeM network in recent months. Their identities have not yet been disclosed by officials pending further verification through forensic and biometric analysis.
Encounter 2: Shopian's Kellar Forest - Lashkar-e-Taiba Cell Neutralised
Three key LeT terrorists were killed in a dense forested area of Shopian district:
1. Shahid Kutte - Resident of Chotipora Heerpora, Shopian. A Category-A terrorist who joined LeT on March 8, 2023. Kutte is accused in the 2024 resort shooting case in Shopian that injured two German tourists and a local driver. He is also an accused in the 2024 assassination of a BJP sarpanch in Herapora and the killing of a Territorial Army jawan in Kulgam this February.
2. Adnan Shafi Dar - Resident of Vanduna Melhora, Shopian. Joined LeT on October 18, 2024 and a Category-C terrorist. He was responsible for the murder of a migrant labourer on the day of his induction.
3. Aamir Bashir - From Shopian. A member of The Resistance Front (TRF), a front outfit of LeT, and a Category-C terrorist. TRF had claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack.
Encounter 3: Tral Forest - Jaish-e-Mohammed Module
Another operation took place in the Tral forest area, eliminating three militants of Jaish-e-Mohammed, all from Tral:
1. Asif Ahmed Sheikh - District Commander of Awantipora. Category-C. Active from April 18, 2022.
2. Aamir Nazir Wani - Active since April 26, 2024. Category-C.
3. Yawar Ahmed Bhatt - Active since August 26, 2024. Category-C.
These terrorists were reportedly involved in reactivating sleeper cells in southern Kashmir.
Encounter 4: Mulnar Village - Operation Mahadev
Three Pakistani LeT terrorists were killed in Mulnar village under Operation Mahadev: Sulaiman, Afghan and Jibran. Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday during a debate on Operation Sindoor, confirmed that the three terrorists eliminated in Operation Mahadev were the same individuals who carried out the Pahalgam massacre.
Encounter 5: Poonch - Operation Shivshakti
Under Operation Shivshakti, two Pakistani LeT terrorists were killed in the Poonch region. While their names have not been publicly disclosed, officials confirmed they were infiltrators who recently crossed over from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Current Active Local Terrorists
According to intelligence sources, a handful of remaining local operatives still active:
1. Ahsan Ahmed Shaikh - Pulwama. LeT affiliate. Active from June 24, 2023. Category-C.
2. Asif Ahmed Khande - Shopian. Joined Hizbul Mujahideen in July 2015. Category-A.
3. Naseer Ahmad Wani - Shopian. LeT. Active from November 30, 2019. Category-C.
4. Zubair Ahmed Wani alias Abu Ubaida alias Usman - Anantnag. Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Operational Commander in Anantnag. Active since April 19 2018. Category A+.
5. Aaron Rashid Ganai - Anantnag. Travelled to PoK in 2018, returned to South Kashmir in June 2021. Affiliation unclear.
6. Adil Hussain - Anantnag. LeT member. Further details awaited.
UN Security Council Mentions TRF
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), for the first time, officially identified The Resistance Front (TRF) in a sanctions monitoring report as responsible for the terror attack in Pahalgam. The report explicitly cited TRF's claim of responsibility for the attack that left 26 people dead.
This is the first time TRF, a proxy group linked to the Pakistan-based LeT, has been named in any formal United Nations document. The report's inclusion of TRF happened despite strong diplomatic resistance from Pakistan.
According to the Monitoring Team report, five terrorists launched the attack in Pahalgam on April 22. On the same day, TRF claimed responsibility and also published a photograph of the attack site. The group repeated its claim on April 23 but retracted it on April 26. No other group stepped forward to claim the attack.
Despite this retraction, the report notes that at least two member states informed the UN sanctions team that the attack could not have occurred without the support of Lashkar-e-Taiba. One member state explicitly said TRF and LeT were synonymous. A third member state, however, disagreed, claiming that LeT was now defunct.
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The inclusion of TRF in the UN report comes against the backdrop of Pakistan's attempts to manipulate language in official UNSC documents. Pakistan's Foreign Minister had boasted in the Pakistan National Assembly about achieving this retraction.
The Monitoring Team's report now directly contradicts that claim and restores the reference to TRF in the official UN record.
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