A soldier was killed and another injured in a gunfight with “armed personnel” who crossed the Line of Control to attack an army forward post in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir, on Saturday.

The attack suggests Pakistan is reactivating its Border Action Team (BAT) to escalate the situation, army sources said.

The army said a “Pakistani intruder” was also killed in the encounter.

The attack came less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Pakistan had not learnt its lesson and vowed to crush “terrorism with full force” and give a “befitting reply” to militant attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

The army said a group of “two to three armed personnel crossed the LoC and fired on a forward army post from close proximity” by taking advantage of bad weather and poor visibility in Kupwara’s Machhal sector.

“Alert troops responded vigorously and, in the ensuing exchange of fire, one Pakistani intruder was killed along with the recovery of weapons, ammunition and war-like stores. Identification and affiliation of this Pakistani national is being ascertained,” the army said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, the army had said there was an exchange of fire with “unidentified personnel” on a forward post at Kamkari in the Machhal sector on the LoC. “One Pakistani person has been killed while two of our soldiers have suffered injuries and have been evacuated,” it said.

In an afternoon update, the army offered its deepest condolences for Rifleman Mohit Rathour who laid down his life in the line of duty.

The army’s additional directorate-general of public administration said General Upendra Dwivedi and all army ranks saluted the supreme sacrifice of “Braveheart Rifleman Mohit Rathour”.

Army sources said the attack had all the hallmarks of a BAT operation, in which Pakistani army regulars team up with specially trained militants to target border posts.

The last time a BAT operation had inflicted casualties was on October 22, 2019, when a junior commissioned officer was killed in the Nowshera sector of Jammu, although the army officially denied such an attack.

In 2022, a defence spokesman in Srinagar had said "an infiltration or BAT action was attempted in the Keran Sector of Kupwara district" but "swift action by the troops deployed at the LoC foiled the bid and eliminated the terrorist, later identified as Mohammad Shabbir Malik, a Pakistani national".

Although the army has not formally attributed Saturday’s attack to the BAT, its statement and social media posts nowhere mentioned infiltrating "terrorists". Instead, the attackers were described as "unidentified personnel" and "armed personnel", and the dead intruder as a "Pakistani person" or "Pakistani intruder".

Militants have killed two dozen people in Jammu and Kashmir in the latest flare-up of violence since June 9, the day Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister for a third term.

On the 25th anniversary of the Kargil victory on Friday, Modi said Pakistan had failed in all its nefarious attempts in the past but had not learnt from history.

"It is trying to keep itself relevant by supporting terrorism and proxy war. I am speaking from a place where the masters of terror can hear my voice directly — I want to tell these patrons of terrorism that their nefarious intentions will never succeed. Our soldiers will crush terrorism with full force and the enemy will be given a befitting reply," he said.