Jammu: Two local policemen, including an officer, were injured Thursday in the ongoing gunfight between holed-up terrorists and the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district.
Officials said that two policemen, including an officer and a jawan of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police, were injured in the initial firing exchanges between the hiding terrorists and the security forces in the Juthana area of the Kathua district.
The officials said both policemen had been taken to the hospital, and their condition has been described as stable.
There are reports of one terrorist killed in this gunfight, but there is still no official confirmation of this.
After massive searches during the last four days, firing exchanges had started again Thursday morning between the joint forces and the terrorists in the Kathua district.
The officials said, “Contact has been re-established with militants in the forest area of Sufain under Police Station Rajbagh in Kathua. Security forces launched a search operation in the area during the early hours. According to initial reports, firing is still ongoing.”
Massive searches, initially started in the Sanyal village of Hiranagar Tehsil, were spread to other adjoining areas as the terrorists had not responded to any speculative firing by the security forces after the initial exchange of gunfire Sunday.
A local woman informed the police Tuesday that two men in Army uniform asked her for water while they were having food in the area.
This prompted the area to be cordoned off. Security was tightened along the Jammu-Pathankot National Highway in the Samba-Kathua section, with increased vigilance on border roads, officials said.
The search operation was carried out in multiple areas from Sanyal to Ding Amb and beyond, covering several kilometers. The operation involving the Army, NSG, BSF, police, Special Operation Group, and CRPF, armed with technical and surveillance equipment, is supported by helicopters, UAVs, drones, bulletproof vehicles, and sniffer dogs. Security agencies have questioned several persons in various areas and picked up three suspects for questioning, the officials said.
During the search operation Tuesday, security forces recovered two grenades. The tracksuits found among a large cache of ammunition and other materials in the Sanyal forests were identical to those worn by the four Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) terrorists killed in the Assar forests and Doda in June and August last year. Local people in the areas have joined the operation by security forces and urged those living in other areas to remain vigilant and inform of any movement of suspected persons in their areas.
Several village heads have requested people to come forward with information about the movement of terrorists in their areas.
The operation, led by the DG of Jammu and Kashmir Police, Nalin Prabhat, was launched Sunday evening in the Hiranagar sector following an encounter between security forces and terrorists hiding in a nursery.
The Special Operations Group (SOG) of police initiated the operation after receiving intelligence about terrorists hiding inside a ”dhok” (local enclosure) in a nursery in Sanyal village, approximately five km from the International Border with Pakistan, officials said.
The hiding terrorists opened fire on the police team, resulting in a gunfight lasting over half an hour. Reinforcements were promptly dispatched as a manhunt began to apprehend the terrorists believed to have infiltrated Saturday via either a ravine route or a newly constructed tunnel.
Initial firing did not cause any casualties, and the area remained under tight security overnight before security forces moved in at dawn, officials said.
Although there had been no further encounters with the terrorists, search parties Monday discovered four loaded magazines of M4 carbine, two grenades, a bulletproof jacket, sleeping bags, tracksuits and several packets of food.
The International Border between India and Pakistan is situated in the district, and in the past, terrorists have attempted to sneak into the Indian side over the border.
Recently, in Kathua, three civilians, Darshan Singh, 40, Yogesh Singh, 32, and Varun Singh, 14, went missing March 5 while returning from a wedding in Marhoon village. Their bodies were discovered March 8 near a waterfall on the edge of an escarpment in a wooded area following an extensive search involving the Army, police, drones, and sniffer dogs.
“The brutal killing of three relatives by terrorists in the Bani area of Kathua is extremely sad as well as a matter of great concern,” Union Minister Jitendra Singh said in a post on X.
In the wake of the incident, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan came to Jammu March 9 and chaired a high-level security meeting regarding the safe and peaceful Amarnath Yatra beginning July 3 and the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), which is shortly being inaugurated.
The Home Secretary laid emphasis on the security situation in the Jammu division while giving detailed directions on the overall security situation in UT.
IANS
