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New Delhi: A day after three terrorists were neutralised in an encounter near Dachigam, on the outskirts of Srinagar, the Army on Tuesday confirmed that Operation Mahadev is still underway. The Army added that search operations in the area are still ongoing.
The joint operation, involving the Army, CRPF, and J&K Police, was launched based on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of foreign terrorists in the Mahadev hill area. While the identities of the deceased are yet to be officially confirmed, security agencies are working to ascertain whether one of them is Suleiman Shah. He is believed to be the lead terrorist behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which left 26 civilians, mostly tourists, dead.
The Army's Chinar Corps, in a post on X on Monday, said: "Three terrorists have been neutralised in an intense firefight."
According to reports, Suleiman, a former Pakistani Special Forces commando, trained at the Lashkar-e-Taiba's Muridke hub in Pakistan's Punjab province before infiltrating into Jammu in 2022 with an M4 carbine. He had been evading capture since the Pahalgam massacre, constantly moving through forested zones.
Acting on technical intelligence, involved the tracking of communications on the encrypted Chinese app Ultra, security forces zeroed in on the terrorist hideout in Mahadev hill, thus the name of the operation.
During the encounter, forces recovered an M4 carbine, two AK rifles, and grenades from the hideout. As per standard operating procedure, the deceased terrorists will be buried in unmarked graves in a designated burial ground.
According to initial reports, all three neutralised terrorists were Pakistani nationals and affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its proxy outfit, The Resistance Front (TRF). The two others killed alongside Suleiman are believed to be Abu Hamza and Yasir, though official confirmation is awaited.
