New Delhi: In a major step towards enhancing joint ness among the three services, the special forces of Army, Navy and Air Force have been deployed in the Kashmir valley to carry out combined counter-terrorist operations.

The three special forces, namely, the Army`s Para (Special Forces), Navy`s Marine Commandos (MARCOS) and Indian Air Force`s Garud Special Forces are being deployed in the Kashmir valley under the Defence Ministry`s newly-raised Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD), senior Defence sources told .

The induction of the joint special troops of the three forces has already started as the Army Para (SF) elements have already been inducted into an area considered to be a traditional terror hotbed near Srinagar, they said. The elements of the MARCOS and the Garuds would also begetting fully inducted into the anti-terrorist operations very soon, they said.

Although small teams of Navy`s MARCOS and IAF`s Garuds have been operating in the Kashmir valley, this is the first time when the three services would be deployed jointly there. The MARCOS commandos are deployed in and around the Wular lake area while the Garud teams have been operating in the Lolab area and Hajin.

The Air Force Special Forces had a very successful stint inthe Kashmir valley as they managed to eliminate six terrorists in one go inOperation Rakh Hajin for which its Corporal JP Nirala was also awarded theAshok Chakra posthumously. The aim of joint Special Forces deployment in theKashmir valley is to give the troops exposure of operating jointly in realoperations. The AFSPD has already carried out two exercises in differentlocations practicing assault on strategic enemy positions and taking backcaptured areas.

The first exercise of the AFSOD was in the Kutch regioncodenamed Ex Smelling Field while the second was in Andaman and Nicobar Islandscodenamed DANX-2019. The first head of the Armed Forces Special OperationsDivision (AFSOD) is Major General Ashok Dhingra.

The division has performed well since it came into existenceand is still facing issues involved in raising including manpower and equipmentshortcomings.