Key Points

Officials said that the trooper identified as Sugam Choudhary of the 60th BSF battalion went missing from his battalion headquarters in Srinagar late Thursday evening.

"A massive search operation was launched to trace the missing BSF trooper who was posted in the Panthachowk area of Srinagar. The trooper belonging to the 60th Battalion was stationed at Panthachowk. However, despite extensive efforts in nearby areas, he remains untraceable," the officials said.

Following this, a missing report has been lodged, and further investigation is underway, the officials added.

It is not so far known whether the absence of the trooper was a deliberate personal act by the trooper or if there are some other reasons behind this disappearance.

More details are awaited as the probe and search are on.

The security forces are already on maximum alert in the union territory after Operation Sindoor was announced by New Delhi to avenge the killing of 26 civilians by Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists on April 22 in the Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam.

All three hardcore Pakistani terrorists responsible for the April 22 killings of civilians were eliminated by the joint forces in Operation Mahadev in the upper reaches of Dachigam National Park on the foot of the Mahadev mountain peak in the Harwan area of Srinagar district on July 28. The slain LeT terrorists included LeT commander Suleman Shah and his two associates, Abu Humza and Jibran Bhai.

Security forces are aggressively carrying out anti-terrorist operations in J&K, targeting terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs) and sympathisers.

Even drug smugglers and drug peddlers are on the radar of the security forces. It is believed by the intelligence agencies that funds generated illegally through hawala money rackets and drug smuggling are finally routed into the sustenance of terrorism in J&K.

From just physical elimination of terrorists, the focus is now on dismantling the entire ecosystem of terrorism in the UT.

- IANS