Kurukshetra (Haryana), Jan 8: Former Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor and many retired top officers of the defence services joined the Rahul Gandhi-led 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' on Sunday which is passing through Haryana.

Amid severe cold and fog, the march resumed in the morning from Dodwa in Karnal's Nilokheri region and entered the Kurukshetra district later in the day. Scores of people joined the Yatra as it passed through Karnal in the morning, which is also the home constituency of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Senior party leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kumari Selja are part of the Yatra in its Haryana leg.

"Ex-COAS (chief of Army staff) Gen Deepak Kapoor, Lt Gen R K Hooda, Lt Gen VK Narula, AM (air marshal) PS Bhangu, Maj Gen Satbir Singh Chaudhary, Maj Gen Dharmender Singh, Col Jitender Gill, Col Pushpender Singh, Lt Gen DDS Sandhu, Maj Gen Bishamber Dayal, Col Rohit Chaudhry join @RahulGandhi at the Bharat Jodo Yatra," the Congress tweeted.

The march covered over 130 km in its first leg in Haryana from December 21 to 23, passing through Nuh, Gurugram and Faridabad districts. It re-entered Haryana's Panipat Thursday evening from Uttar Pradesh.

The yatra, which started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, will end after reaching Srinagar by January 30 with Gandhi hoisting the national flag there. The march has so far covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

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New Delhi (PTI): Three terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack have been eliminated by security forces in a joint operation by the Army, CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police near Srinagar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Participating in the special discussion on Operation Sindoor, Shah said the terrorists were killed under Operation Mahadev on Monday. They have been identified as Suleman alias Faizal, Afghani and Jibran.

"While Suleman was an A-category commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Afghani was also an A-category Lashkar-e-Taiba terroris, Jibran too was a notorious and wanted terrorist. All these three terrorists involved in the killing of our citizens at Baisaran valley in Pahalgam have now been eliminated," he said.

To be sure about the identity of the terrorists, those detained by security forces for helping the terrorists were brought in and confirmed that the three were involved in the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Shah told the House.

"People who used to supply food, provide shelter to the terrorists were detained earlier. Once the bodies of these terrorists were brought to Srinagar, they were identified by those who were detained by our agencies," he said.

The arms -- M-9 and AK-47 rifles -- recovered from the terrorists were flown to Chandigarh on Monday night in a special flight for examination at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory.

The empty cartridges found at Pahalgam and those after test firing by the recovered guns were matched by the forensic lab, Shah said. The ballistic report is with him, he added.

"Six forensic experts have confirmed to me on a video call this morning that these are the same bullets used in the Pahalgam attack," he said.

The home minister said security forces had recovered Pakistani voter IDs of two of the killed terrorists as well as chocolates made in Pakistan and the weapons.

After the Pahalgam attack, security forces were instructed not to allow terrorists responsible for the dastardly act to leave the country

Describing the Pahalgam attack as barbaric, Shah said innocent civilians were brutally killed in front of their families after being asked about their religion and were murdered with extreme cruelty.

Expressing heartfelt condolences for those who had lost their lives in Pahalgam and during Pakistani shelling on civilians, the home minister said due to Pakistani firing civilians were martyred and some gurdwaras and temples damaged.