Jammu and Kashmir

"One unidentified terrorist killed. Operation going on," police said. The gunfight took place after a joint team of the police and the army cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about the presence of terrorists.

An official of the MeT department said Srinagar city witnessed the coldest night of the season so far. Pahalgam had minus 6.4 and Gulmarg minus 5.5 degrees Celsius as the night's lowest temperature. Drass town of Ladakh had minus 18.0, Leh minus 14.6 and Kargil minus 10.6 degrees Celsius as the minimum.

"During the search operation, as the presence of terrorists got ascertained, they were given repeated opportunities to surrender; however, they fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter," the police said. "In the ensuing encounter, three terrorists of proscribed terror outfit LeT (TRF) were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of encounter."

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha, in a written reply, that there has been a substantial decrease in incidents of infiltration and terrorist attacks in the Union Territory since 2018. As on October 31 this year, a total of 28 incidents of infiltration occurred as against 51 in 2020, 141 in 2019 and 143 in 2018.

He has been identified as Yasir Parray, an IED expert. The second terrorist killed is a foreign national identified as Furqan. "Terrorist commander of proscribed terror outfit JeM Yasir Parray, an IED Expert and foreign terrorist Furqan neutralised. Both were involved in several terror crime cases. A big success," the J&K Police quoting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar said.

An official of the Meteorological Department (MeT) said, "A Western Disturbance (WD) is most likely to affect J&K during December 5-7. "Widespread light to moderate snowfall and rain in plains is expected during this period. "Some places on higher reaches (above 2000m) may receive heavy snow( 1-2 ft) whereas plains are likely to receive 2-3 inches of snow.

An official of the Meteorological Department (MeT) said due to clear night sky the minimum temperatures dropped further in J&K and Ladakh thereby intensifying the cold wave conditions. "Minimum temperature was minus 1.1 in Srinagar while it was minus 3.4 in Pahalgam and minus 2.2 degrees Celsius in Gulmarg today.

The dispersal of the attackers into separate teams indicates an effort to reduce operational risk. Once the attacks began, the failure or elimination of any single team would not have put the other teams out of action. The only possible point of failure for the entire attack was while the terrorists were still at sea enroute Mumbai, the report said.

Top sources indicate that the delimitation commission has completed its draft report of new and re-alignment of some old assembly seats in J&K. The commission is headed by retired Supreme Court judge, Ranjana Desai. Close on the heels of PDP chief, Mehbooba Mufti's visit to the Chenab Valley,

Director General of Police Dilbag Singh told IANS that TRF terrorist commander Mehran was among those killed in the encounter. He was responsible for the killing of School Principal Supinder Kaur and her colleague Deepak Chand in the school premises at Eidgah, Srinagar on October 7. The encounter between terrorists and security forces took place after an operation was launched on the basis of specific information about presence of terrorists.