Five terrorists were killed in the ongoing encounter with security forces in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Friday. The operation is in its final stage, the police said, adding the identity of the slain terrorist is being ascertained.

The encounter broke out on Thursday afternoon at the Samno pocket of the DH Pora area of Kulgam district, according to Jammu and Kashmir Police.

“Day 2: Five terrorists neutralized by Kulgam Police, Army, and CRPF. Incriminating materials were recovered. Operation in the final stage; area being sanitized,” the Kashmir Zone Police wrote in a post on X.

The police, earlier, confirmed that the exchange of heavy fire between the security forces and the terrorists from across the border was still ongoing.

The joint operation against the terrorists involves the Army’s 34 Rashtriya Riffles, 9 Para (elite special forces unit), police, and the CRPF. The village was further surrounded during the night and lights were installed near the encounter site.

While the security forces maintained a tight cordon around the area where the terrorists were trapped, the operation was suspended overnight, officials said.

Gunshots were exchanged early Friday after a night-long lull at Samno in Nehama area of Kulgam, the officials told news agency PTI.

The house where the terrorists were hiding caught fire in the exchange of fire this morning, forcing the militants to come out.

This is a major anti-insurgency operation in South Kashmir since the September 13 operation in the Garol forests of Anantnag in which four security forces personnel and two terrorists were killed in a week-long operation.

Earlier, an infiltration bid was thwarted along the Line of Control in the Uri Sector on November 15, Wednesday, the army said.

The army and Jammu and Kashmir Police neutralised the infiltrators during a joint operation named ‘Operation Kali’.

This was the second infiltration bid in the same region.

The Army said of the two infiltrators killed was Bashir Ahmed Malik, an important cog in the Pakistan-enabled cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.