Nagrota: Truck driver still absconding, police intensify searches
“Either he is hiding in the area or might have been picked up by another vehicle. At this moment, we don’t know his identity as well,” inspector Mohammad Showkat, the Nagrota station house officer, said.
A day after security forces gunned down four suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operatives on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway near Nagrota, the truck driver who was ferrying them to the Kashmir Valley remains on the run, officials familiar with the investigation said on Friday.
“Either he is hiding in the area or might have been picked up by another vehicle. At this moment, we don’t know his identity as well,” inspector Mohammad Showkat, the Nagrota station house officer, said.
Senior superintendent of police Shridhar Patil, the Jammu district police chief, said that police teams were searching for the driver.
Thursday’s encounter broke out at around 4.50am at Ban toll plaza on the highway in Jammu district following specific inputs, officials have said. The gunfight began after security forces intercepted a truck carrying the terrorists.
While the JeM terrorists were killed in the fierce three-hour-long gun battle, two policemen of the Special Operations Group were injured in the exchange of fire.
The wounded securitymen have been identified as Kuldeep Raj (32) of Akhnoor in Jammu district and Mohammad Ishaq Malik (40) of Neel Qasim Banihal in Ramban district. Both have been admitted to Jammu’s Government Medical College and are said to be stable.
Mukesh Singh, inspector general of police (Jammu zone), said on Thursday: “In the exchange of fire, four terrorists were eliminated and two constables injured. Terrorists lobbed grenades on security forces during checking (of the truck). The truck also caught fire and few grenades also exploded inside it during the exchanges”.
He said that 11 AK-47 rifles, three pistols, 29 live grenades, six UBGL grenades, mobile phones, compass and other ammunition were recovered from the terrorists. Singh added that the security forces were getting inputs about possible infiltration by Pakistani terrorists ahead of the upcoming local elections.
Officials suspect that the terrorists were planning “something big” ahead of the district development council (DDC) elections, which will be held from November 28 to December 22.
