The fog hanging over the Kaivan forest at 2,400 meters smelled of soaked pine, rotted bracken, and frozen damp. In the pitch-black corridor of Central Kashmir's Budgam district, the chill seeped straight through tactical gloves and ballistic plates. Concealed along the jagged ridgeline separating the timberline from the open pastures of Palmaidan, operators from the Indian Army’s 53 Rashtriya Rifles, Para Commandos, and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police lay motionless in the mud.