8 Army Soldiers Injured in Kishtwar Encounter with JeM Terrorists

Officials said the joint forces had started a CASO (cordon and search operation) in Sonar village of Chhatru area of Kishtwar after receiving information about a group of terrorists hiding there.

Officials said one of the search teams came across a group of two to three foreign terrorists, reportedly belonging to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit, who fired indiscriminately and also lobbed a few grenades in an attempt to break the cordon.

"The troops retaliated and reinforcements from the Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and police were rushed to further tighten the cordon. There was intermittent firing between the two sides till 5.40 p.m.

"Eight soldiers were injured and evacuated to hospital. Most of them suffered splinter injuries in the grenade blast.

"A massive search operation is on to track and neutralise the terrorists. Advanced surveillance equipment, including drones, and sniffer dogs have been deployed to speed up the operation," officials said.

This is the third encounter between the security forces and terrorists in the Jammu region this year. Encounters broke out in 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, the officials said.

The Army's Nagrota-based White Knight Corps said earlier on X, "Operation Trashi-I: Contact was established with terrorists in the general area of Son Nar, northeast of Chhatru, during a deliberate search operation conducted as part of ongoing joint counter-terror operations along with @JmuKmrPolice.

"Troops displayed exceptional professionalism and resolve while responding to hostile fire under challenging terrain and conditions. Operations remain underway with additional forces inducted to reinforce the cordon, supported by close coordination with civil administration and security agencies."

Hilly districts of the 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.

A number of 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 J&K on January 8, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, the presence of terrorists in the hilly districts of the Jammu division was discussed threadbare.

Home Minister Shah gave clear orders that co-ordinated, 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 J&K.

The LoC is 740 km long and the IB is 240 km long in J&K. 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.

- IANS