Search operation carried out in Kashmir's Shopian, no militants found

Security forces on Saturday carried out massive searches in nearly a dozen villages of Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district but did not find any militants during the operation, police said.

"The operation was carried out in around a dozen villages in Shopian district today and it has ended peacefully," said a police officer.

Personnel of the army's counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles, the state police's Special Operations Group and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force surrounded nearly a dozen villages in the district on Saturday morning and carried out house to house searches.

No firing incident was reported during the operation, police said without giving any further details of the operation.

Since no firing was reported from anywhere during the operation, it is unlikely that any militants were hiding in the villages under the cordon and search operation.

Security forces have carried out such operations over large areas in the past as well and these have been described as "area domination exercises", which in layman terms, means ensuring that the militants do not get a foothold in these areas.

--IANS

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