Three unidentified terrorists killed in Tral encounter

Officials said a joint team of forces cordoned off Nader village of Tral in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

As the joint team of forces were zeroing in on the target, the terrorists hiding in the area opened fire and tried to break the security cordon. The joint team of forces returned fire leading to a gunfight.

The three terrorists were killed in the exchange of fire. Their identities and group affiliation were yet to be ascertained, the official said.

The encounter comes two days after security forces killed three Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists in South Kashmir’s Shopian district. It also comes days after

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a speech in the aftermath of India’s strikes on terrorist sites in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan, promised counter strikes as a response to terror without differentiating between terrorists and the regime that sponsors them.

India’s precision strikes were in retaliation to the killing of 26 civilians – mostly tourists but also a local pony operator — in Pahalgam last month.

— With agency inputs