Key Points

The three terrorists were killed in an intense gunfight with the security forces in the higher reaches of Dachigam National Park near the Mahadev peak in the Harwan area of Srinagar.

"The operation is still going on in the area. The exact identity of the slain terrorists is being ascertained," an army official said.

The killings of the three terrorists came after an anti-terrorist operation was started on Monday by the security forces in the Dachigam National Park.

"The anti-terrorist operation was started following Intelligence inputs. Reinforcements were rushed to the spot as the area is densely populated and the terrain under operation is tough," an official said.

The Indian Army, J&K Police and the security forces have been launching aggressive anti-terrorist operations across the area targeting terrorists, Over Ground Workers (OGWs) and sympathisers of terrorism in order to totally dismantle the ecosystem of terror in the UT.

The focus previously used to be merely on the elimination of terrorists, but since 2019, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has given an elaborate and extensive narrative and objective to anti-terrorist operations by speaking of the terror ecosystem and bringing it into focus.

The concept of security has since undergone a sea-change as the entire gamut of anti-nationalist operatives, whether armed or not, has been brought under the anti-terrorist operations.

After the April 22 terror attack by Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam, in which 26 people were killed, the anti-terrorist operations have been using cutting-edge technology, backed up with human Intelligence to defeat the nefarious designs of the terrorists.

The heinous Pahalgam terrorist attack outraged the entire country, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the armed forces a free hand to avenge the Pahalgam attack.

Indian armed forces carried out target-specific strikes against terror infrastructure deep inside Pakistan, destroying nine terror bases.

However, Pakistan retaliated by targeting military and civilian facilities, destroying scores of homes and other private property and religious places, including a temple, a gurdwara and a church in Poonch district of Jammu division. In the resultant escalation, 18 defence bases of the Pakistan armed forces were damaged.

- IANS