Though firing has already stopped in Waderbala Handwara forests but the operation that was launched during Saturday night is still in progress. Army along with the police is combing the forests and looking for more militants. Officials have not ruled out presence of more militants hiding in the forests in the area.

Two days earlier, Army and Police had killed two militants in the jungles of Aaitmullah in North Kashmir’s Bandipore district. One of militant who was dubbed as foreigner, on verification turned to be a local.

On January 28, the J-K Police claimed a major success in its battle against militancy when they killed a top Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Abu Hamza in an encounter at Sopore.

The 22-year-old LeT commander was said to be responsible for militant activities in Baramulla and Kupwara districts. Only a day before, police and the Army claimed to have killed another senior Lashkar commander Abu Abdul Rehman, also a resident of Pakistan, in Handwara after an encounter. Two army personnel were also killed at Sopore and Bandipore encounters.

Going by the details of these encounters, it is evident that the police and Army are getting more information about the militant presence in different areas especially in North Kashmir. Officials attribute these successes to the better coordination within the security forces. Especially to sharing of information between J-K Police’s Special Operation Group and Army’s counter insurgency force, Rashtriya Rifles.

Army chief General Deepak Kapoor during his visit to Srinagar on Saturday had said that better coordination and information sharing between the various security agencies are showing good results on the ground. General Kapoor’s reference was towards the recent encounters in which security forces managed to kill two senior commanders of Lashkar.