JAMMU, June 30: Two terrorists were killed on the Amarnath route in Kulgam on Wednesday. The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were shot in an encounter a little away from the Amarnath pilgrimage route near Nawapora in Mir Bazaar of Kulgam district of South Kashmir.

The incident took place even as the first group of yatris were to arrive at Pahalgam and Sonamarg camps from Jammu

“Both the killed terrorists have been identified as categorised local terrorists of proscribed terror outfit LeT. Again an important encounter as the operation site was very close to NHW (Yatra route),” Inspector General of Police, Kashmir zone, Vijay Kumar tweeted.

A joint party of police and army was searching suspected areas along national highway near Nawapora in Mir Bazaar of Kulgam when the encounter took place. The two terrorists have been identified as Yasir Wani and Raees Manzoo.

The Amarnath Yatra season to the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir is begins on Thursday after a gap of three years.

Earlier on June 14 the security forces had gunned down two Pakistani terrorists of the LeT in Srinagar who were suspected to be planning to attack the Amarnath pilgrims. One of them has been identified as Abdullah Goujri of Faisalabad in Pakistan. Over 100 terrorists, of Let and JeM, have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir so far this year, 32 of them had infiltrated from Pakistan. The yatra begins on June 30.

Three Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorists, including the longest surviving commander of the outfit Ashraf Molvi, were killed in an encounter with security forces near Pahalgam on the Amarnath route in Kashmir on May 6.