State PCS - JAMMU & KASHMIR (JKAS)

• 14 May 2025

Operation Keller

Why in News? 

The Army gunned down three Kashmiri terrorists affiliated with the Pakistan-backed banned group Lashkar-e-Taiba during a counterterrorism operation in Keller, Shopian district of Kashmir. 

 Key Points 

• About the Counterterror Operation: 
  • Based on intelligence inputs from the Rashtriya Rifles, the Army launched “Operation Keller” in the dense forested Shoekal Keller area of Shopian. 
  • Army and paramilitary forces quickly sealed off the area, triggering a fierce gunfight that ended with all three terrorists killed. 
  • The Army stated that the operation is still ongoing. 
    • This was the second terrorist encounter in Kashmir in 2025.  
    • Earlier, on 16 March, J&K Police killed a Pakistani terrorist in the Handwara forests, about 100 km north of Srinagar. 
• Wider Military Context: 
  • Security forces remain on high alert following Operation Sindoor launched by India on 7 May 2025. 
  • Under the operation, India carried out airstrikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan. 
  • These strikes came roughly two weeks after the Pahalgam massacre, escalating Indo-Pak tensions. 

 The Rashtriya Rifles 

• It is a counter-insurgency force in India, formed in 1990, to deal with internal security in the Jammu and Kashmir region. 
• They maintain public order by drawing powers from the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (AFSPA). 
• The force operates under the Ministry of Defence. The Indian Army describes RR as their "specialist elite force to combat insurgency". 
• The RR is headquartered at Northern Command in Udhampur and commanded by an Additional Director General of Rashtriya Rifles (ADG RR).