Indian security forces have launched a powerful counter-terror offensive named Operation Mahadev, eliminating three heavily armed Pakistani terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in two high-stakes encounters across Dachigam forest and Lidwas region near Mount Mahadev, Srinagar. The twin operations are being seen as India’s decisive response to the April Pahalgam massacre, which claimed 26 lives in one of the worst terror strikes in recent memory.
In the first of the two operations, three Pakistani terrorists directly linked to the April Pahalgam attack were gunned down by a joint team of the Indian Army, Jammu & Kashmir Police, and CRPF in the Lidwas area, a difficult terrain adjoining Mount Mahadev. The mission, executed with surgical precision, came after intercepted communications revealed movement of foreign militants planning further strikes.
Acting swiftly on these inputs, Indian forces launched a cordon-and-search mission in Lidwas, leading to a sharp and intense firefight. All three foreign infiltrators suspected to be part of the same terror module that carried out the Pahalgam killings were neutralised within minutes, confirming the Indian Army’s shift to pre-emptive neutralisation tactics.
Just hours later, in the upper reaches of the Dachigam forest, another joint operation led by an area domination patrol of the Army turned deadly when suspicious movement was detected. Around 11:00 AM, gunshots erupted as the patrol engaged three foreign Lashkar terrorists, triggering a fierce gun battle in the dense jungle terrain.
Top intelligence sources have confirmed that the slain militants were all foreign nationals from Pakistan, believed to be part of a broader infiltration wave into Kashmir. Drone surveillance was immediately deployed to capture photographic evidence of the bodies, which are now being shown to two harbourers recently arrested by the NIA to confirm identities.
The Dachigam forest zone, located near key infiltration corridors, has long been used by Pakistan-based jihadist groups as a transit hub, protected by natural terrain and aided by local sympathisers. Security forces are now combing the area for hidden weapons and further leads.
What’s striking about Operation Mahadev is not just the swift action, but the strategic pivot in the Indian Army’s counter-insurgency playbook. No longer dependent solely on tip-offs, the Army has now adopted a terrain dominance model, deploying troops to occupy strategic mountain peaks and hold critical zones for prolonged periods.
This shift has resulted in a surge of successful contact missions across infiltration routes, turning once-safe terrorist hideouts into kill zones. A top commander noted, “We are no longer waiting for them to strike we are intercepting, encircling, and eliminating before they breathe.”
Even if the three slain terrorists were not all directly involved in the Pahalgam massacre, officials say they were part of the 150-strong cadre of foreign jihadists currently operating across J&K. Their elimination has crippled Lashkar’s forward strike teams, disrupting both their logistics and sleeper cell networks in the Valley.
This comes just months after Indian agencies cracked open multiple Pakistani-funded NGO fronts across border areas, proving that ISI and jihadist groups are now using humanitarian facades to spread Wahhabi extremism and militarised Islamism into Indian territory.
On April 14, 2025, the Pahalgam attack claimed the lives of 26 innocents including women, children, and off-duty personnel—shocking the nation and prompting a massive mobilisation of counter-terror units. For weeks, a multi-agency intelligence hunt tracked suspicious movements, communications, and supply lines—leading to this week’s deadly twin-strike under Operation Mahadev.
“These are not just isolated encounters. This is the start of a longer campaign to obliterate Pakistan’s terror pipeline into Jammu & Kashmir,” said a senior intelligence official. “If they come with guns, they will leave in body bags. No exception.”
The operation’s name Mahadev, another name for Bhagwan Shiva was not chosen lightly. The symbolic weight of invoking Shiva, destroyer of evil, underscores the ideological resolve behind the security response. These operations are not only tactical, they are civilisational responses to jihadist aggression.
The Lidwas and Dachigam forests once used as routes of cowardly infiltration have now become grounds of retribution. In invoking Mahadev, the Indian state has sent a chilling signal to all enemies—foreign or domestic that its resolve is absolute, its memory long, and its response unforgiving.
