Srinagar, Mar 17: A Pakistani terrorist was killed in an operation against terrorists by a joint security forces team in J&K’s Kupwara district on Monday, officials said.

SSP Handwara, Mushtaq Ahmad Choudhary said that the operation was launched early in the morning based on specific intelligence inputs.

“During the operation, contact was established with the terrorist leading to the neutralisation of the terrorist. The terrorist was identified as Safiullah, a resident of Pakistan, who was active for a long time.

He said that security forces, which comprised the Handwara police, 21 Rashtriya Rifles, and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), recovered an AK-47 rifle, four magazines, a grenade, and other incriminating materials from the site.

"The area has been secured, and further investigations are underway," the SSP said.

The encounter had broken out between security forces and the hiding terrorist in Kupwara earlier in the day.

Officials said that following intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists in the Krumbhoora (Zachaldara) village in the Rajwar area of the district, security forces started a CASO (Cordon and Search Operation).

"As the security forces closed on the hiding terrorist, he fired at the surrounding security forces triggering an encounter," an official said.

Authorities had sealed off the area and additional reinforcements had been deployed to ensure a successful operation.

Civilians in the area were advised to stay indoors and avoid movement near the encounter site for their safety.

Terrorists, under the orders of their handlers sitting across the border in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), have stepped up their activities. Intelligence agencies believe that the peaceful, people-participative Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections in 2024 have frustrated terror handlers in Pakistan.

Recently, terrorists killed three innocent civilians in the Kathua district, including a 14-year-old boy.

The bodies of two civilians out of three who went missing from the Qazigund area of the Kulgam district on February 14 have been recovered.

These civilians, belonging to the Rajouri district of the Jammu division, were working as labourers in the Valley to earn their livelihood.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has chaired three security review meetings on J&K since the beginning of 2025. He has given clear orders to the security forces to ensure zero infiltration and zero tolerance for terrorists and their sympathisers in the Union Territory.

Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha has also chaired two back-to-back security review meetings, one in Srinagar and the other in Jammu, directing police and security forces to dismantle the entire ecosystem of terror sustained by terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs), and sympathisers.

He said that funds generated from drug smuggling, drug trafficking and hawala rackets are ultimately used to sustain terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, and the war against terror cannot be fought in isolation unless its support channels dry up.

--IANS

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