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3 terrorists gunned down in Doda encounter: Police
Three terrorists killed in encounter in Jammu's Doda district, one police jawan injured. Security forces launch "Operation Lagor" in response to spike in attacks.
SRINAGAR: Three terrorists have been killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu’s Doda district on Wednesday, with one Jammu and Kashmir police jawan suffering injuries in the gunbattle. The multi-agency operation, called “Operation Lagor”, was launched on Wednesday morning, in an area that has seen a spike in terrorist attacks, and counter-offensives over the past two years.
The security personnel are searching the forest to look whether more terrorists are hiding in the forest area.
The joint operation was launched on Wednesday morning, senior officials said, after security agencies received an input of a group of three to four terrorists hiding inside a wooden hut in the Sinno forests. As teams of the police, army and the CRPF encircled the hideout, an exchange of fire broke out at 9 am.
At 4 pm, Anand Jain, additional director general of Police Jammu first said, “One terrorist has been gunned down. Based on specific intelligence inputs, a joint operation of J&K Police and security forces was launched in the Gandoh, Bhaderwah Sector of district Doda. The contact was established with the terrorists and firefight is going on,” he said. Senior officers added that the body of the terrorist lying on the ground had been spotted by drones that were carrying out surveillance of the forest area.
The special police officer is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College, Doda.
Three hours later, Jain said that two more terrorists had been killed. “Two more terrorists have been neutralized in an ongoing joint operation in the Gandoh, Bhaderwah sector of district Doda. Arms and ammunition have been recovered from their possession,” he wrote on X.
The official handle of the Indian Army posted on X: “After an intense firefight, three hardcore terrorists have been neutralized in a joint operation of #IndianArmy and #JKP. A large cache of warlike stores, including automatic assault rifles, has been recovered.Operations are currently in progress.”
Senior officials said that the Army and the police have stepped up their operations in the region after an attack on an army camp at Kota on the night of June 11 that left six soldiers injured.Soon after, J&K director general of police had said that militants operating in Doda, Poonch and Rajouri belts of Jammu would be acted against.
“Terrorists will be finished in two to three months, like we did in past,” the DGP had said.
The increased terrorist presence in Jammu has been a growing concern, with the union ministry of home affairs monitoring the situation. BetweenJune 9 and June 12, there were three terror attacks in three days that left both civilians and police personnel dead. One of those attacks involved terrorists opening fire on a bus of devotees which subsequently lost control and fell into a gorge, with nine killed and 42 injured.
Officials have said that there is now growing acknowledgement of a pattern, first spotted in 2023, that terrorists from across the border are now targeting Jammu’s Pir Panjal and Rajouri belts, with a series of attacks in the past two years. In 2024 for instance,
a social welfare department employee was killed in Rajouri by terrorists in April; six days later, a village defence guard was killed in a gunfight with infiltrators in Udhampur, and on May 4, militants ambushed a security convoy, killing an IAF officer and injuring four others in Poonch.
In July 2023, officials involved in counter terrorism efforts had told HT that terror groups from Pakistan were now targeting Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts, forcing security agencies to “recalibrate their responses.” One officer had told HT at the time that there were between 30 and 40 highly trained terrorists that had crossed over into Jammu. “While trained terrorists appear to be using the Line of Control (LoC) to enter India and hide inside the forests; their commanders are also trying to establish their bases in Jammu region. In fact, one or two senior commanders of terror group Al-Badr may have already come to Jammu either via Nepal or Bangladesh,” one officer had said.
