2 Terrorists Killed In J&K Encounter Days After Pahalgam Killers Shot Dead

Two terrorists were gunned down in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch this morning, days after security forces shot dead the terrorists involved in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. The terrorists, it is learnt, were affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit.

Earlier this morning, the Army's White Knight Corps said in a post on X that it had observed the suspicious movement of two persons in the Poonch sector. "Suspected movement of two individuals was observed by own troops along the fence in gen area of #Poonch Sector. Gunfire exchanged. Operation under progress," it said.

Jammu and Kashmir's Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat later confirmed to NDTV that two terrorists who had infiltrated into India were shot dead during the gunfight with security forces.

The encounter in Poonch comes two days after three terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack, which left 26 innocents dead, were killed in an encounter near Srinagar.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the Parliament during a debate on Operation Sindoor yesterday that the three terrorists killed in Operation Mahadev -- Suleiman, Afghani and Jibran -- are the killers who shot dead innocents in cold blood in Pahalgam's Baisaran Valley on April 22.

Explaining how the government confirmed that these three terrorists were involved in the Pahalgam attack, the Home Minister said, "NIA earlier arrested those who sheltered these terrorists. When their bodies were brought to Srinagar, we got them to identify the bodies."

For further confirmation, he said, forensic reports of bullet shells recovered from the Pahalgam attack site were used. "After these terrorists were killed, their rifles were seized. One was an M9, the other two were AK-47s. We got these rifles flown to Chandigarh central FSL (forensic science laboratory) on a special plane. We generated empty bullet shells by firing these rifles and then matched them with those found in Pahalgam. It was then confirmed that these three rifles were used to murder our innocent civilians," Mr Shah said.

"There is no room for doubt. I am holding the ballistic report, six scientists have cross-checked it and confirmed to me over video call that the bullets fired at Pahalgam and the bullets fired from these guns are a 100 per cent match," he said.