The officials said army personnel had noticed suspicious movement at a forward village and opened fire. The two terrorists were then neutralized

Two militants were killed in the Balakote sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district in a night-long operation on Saturday. The troops noticed a suspicious movement along the LoC in Balakote sector after which some speculative shots were fired by them. A massive search operation was also launched in the area after which contact with the militants was established.

172 terrorists were killed in over 90 operations in the Kashmir Valley in the year 2022. Among those killed, 42 were foreign terrorists, mostly belonging to Pakistan. “During the year 2022, total of 93 successful encounters took place in Kashmir in which 172 terrorists, including 42 foreign terrorists, were neutralized. Maximum terrorists neutralized were from Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)/The Resistant Front (TRF) (108) outfit followed by JeM (35), HM (22), Al-Badr (4) and AGuH (3) outfits,” said Vijay Kumar, ADGP, Kashmir Police.

The Kashmir Police also pointed out that there was a decline in the number of youths joining the terror outfits in the valley. According to data, there is a decline of around 37 per cent in recruitment in terror organizations, the ADGP said in a briefing last year.