Security forces continued their searches on Friday for the third day in a row to track down a group of three to four Jaish terrorists hiding in a forest area of Kishtwar district, said officials.
However, there has been no success so far. “Security forces comprising commandos of 2 Para, troops of 11 RR, CRPF, SOG and Assam Rifles have intensified their searches. However, there has been no fresh contact with the terrorists,” said a senior police officer.
Helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs are being used in the operation and the cordon has been further reinforced with the deployment of additional troops, the officer said.
The operation follows an encounter that broke out between the terrorists and the security forces in the heavily forested Kanzal Mandu area of the Kuchhal-Chatroo belt on Wednesday.
The encounter broke out when police, assisted by army and CRPF, launched a cordon and search operation in Kuchal around 7.45 pm based on intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists in the area.
The search has been expanded in the Chatroo forest region to track down the hiding terrorists.
{{/usCountry}}The search has been expanded in the Chatroo forest region to track down the hiding terrorists.
{{/usCountry}}Wednesday’s encounter was the second in the Jammu region in the last one week. On June 26, a terrorist of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed was killed in an encounter with the security forces while three of his associates managed to escape into the forested area of the Basantgarh belt in Udhampur district.
He was identified as Haider, alias Maulvi, a commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit.