Fresh Encounter Breaks Out Between Security Forces and Hiding Terrorists in J&K’s Kishtwar

JAMMU:
Following a four-day interval since the first gunfight occurred in Singhpora village, located in the Chatroo area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, a new encounter started at the same location on Thursday between the joint security forces and the terrorists.

Officials stated that the fresh exchange of firing started this morning in the village after the joint forces engaged the hiding terrorists in gunfire exchanges.

There was no trace of the hiding terrorists in the area till this day, after Sunday, when one paratrooper of the Army was killed and seven others injured in initial contact between the joint forces and the terrorists.

“Intense firing exchanges are now going on in the area,” officials said.

Multiple teams of the Army, police, and paramilitary forces, supported by drones and sniffer dogs, have been combing the area for the last four days while maintaining a tight security cordon to ensure that the terrorists are not able to escape.

A group of two to three terrorists allegedly affiliated with the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) are believed to be trapped in the area.

Thursday’s encounter marks the fourth conflict between security forces and terrorists in the Jammu region this year.

On January 18, joint forces acting on specific input surrounded the Singhpora village, and during the ensuing cordon and search operation, hiding terrorists fired at a small party of the joint forces, killing one paratrooper and injuring seven other soldiers.

Despite continuing highly fortified anti-terrorist operations in the area, terrorists managed to maintain silence for the last four days till the joint forces succeeded in tracing them out.

Previously, 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.

These 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 the terrorists have 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.

HM Shah gave clear orders that coordinated, sustained, and intelligence-backed operations must be carried out to eliminate terrorists from the mountainous areas and ensure zero infiltration 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 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.