Jammu, Jan 20 (IANS) Some locals were detained for questioning as the anti-terrorist operation entered its third day on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district.
Officials said the anti-terrorist operation was taking place in Sonnar village of Mandal-Singhpora in Chatroo area of the district.
One Army paratrooper was killed after terrorists fired at a team of the joint forces in the initial contact with the security forces on Sunday.
Seven other soldiers were injured in that encounter. The injured are being treated in the hospital.
“The terrorists escaped deep into the forest area, but their well-fortified hideout, packed with a large quantity of winter stock, including eatables, blankets and utensils, was busted,” officials said.
Senior officers, IGP Jammu Zone Bhim Sen Tuti and IG CRPF Jammu R. Gopala Krishna Rao, also reached the encounter site and are camping there along with several Army officers to supervise the operation.
A wreath-laying ceremony was held here to pay tributes to the slain Special Force Commando, Havildar Gajendra Singh, this morning.
The wreath-laying ceremony at Satwari was led by Brigadier Yudhvir Singh Sekhon, the officiating Chief of Staff, White Knight Corps, and later, the mortal remains of the deceased were dispatched to his hometown in Uttarakhand for the last rites. DIG Jammu-Kathua-Samba range, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Rakesh Minhas and several police, CRPF and BSF officers also attended the wreath laying ceremony.
On Monday afternoon, some individuals were taken in for questioning in connection with the busting of the hideout, located at an altitude of over 12,000 feet.
Security forces are trying to identify the overground workers (OGWs) who assisted the terrorists in procuring and transporting large quantities of rations, pulses, utensils, and other supplies, which were enough to provide sustenance for at least four persons during the winter months.
In a post on X on Monday, the Army’s White Knight Corps said Operation Trashi-I continues in Chatroo. “The cordon has been further tightened with search operations expanded. Troops of the corps, along with Police and CRPF, remain deployed to dominate the area,” the Army said.
The official further noted that multiple teams of the Army, police, and paramilitary forces, supported by drones and sniffer dogs, are combing the area despite challenging terrain marked by thick vegetation and steep slopes, limiting visibility and movement.
A group of two to three terrorists reportedly affiliated with the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are believed to be trapped in the area, officials said.
This encounter marks the third conflict between security forces and terrorists in the Jammu region this year.
Previous encounters occurred in the Kahog and Najote forests in the Billawar area of Kathua district on January 7 and 13, respectively.
On December 15 last year, a police officer was killed in an encounter with terrorists at Soan village in the Majalta area of Udhampur district.
The terrorists managed to escape, taking advantage of thick foliage and darkness.
The encounters followed a major counter-terrorist operation launched in the forest belts of the Jammu region in December last year to flush out nearly three dozen holed-up terrorists.
Operations have been further intensified in the run-up to Republic Day to ensure peaceful celebrations, amid intelligence inputs about desperate attempts by Pakistan-based handlers to push more terrorists into the region, officials mentioned.
Hilly districts of Jammu division, including Kathua, Poonch, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Doda, Udhampur and Reasi, have been on the scanner of the security forces after intelligence reports that Pakistani terrorists were moving in the highly forested mountain terrain of these districts. Several times, joint forces have engaged the terrorists in Kathua, Udhampur and other districts in sustained encounters, but somehow the terrorists managed to escape from the cordoned off area, taking cover of the densely forested terrain and darkness during the night.
In the high-level security review meeting on Jammu and Kashmir on January 8, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, the presence of terrorists in the hilly districts of Jammu division was discussed threadbare.
Amit Shah gave clear orders that coordinated, sustained and intelligence-backed operations must be carried out to eliminate terrorists from the mountainous areas and also ensure zero infiltration of terrorists from across the line of control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir.
The LoC is 740 km long, and the IB is 240 km long in Jammu and Kashmir. The Army guards the LoC while the Border Security Force (BSF) guards the IB.
The LoC is situated in Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora districts of the Valley and partly in Jammu district. The IB is situated in Samba, Kathua and Jammu districts of the Jammu division.
