SRINAGAR: Four militants, who were travelling in a truck to Kashmir, were killed in an early morning encounter with security forces in the Sidhra area of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Jammu Mukesh Singh said in view of January 26, the border security grid had been tightened and security beefed up in the Jammu region.
“The highway Quick Reaction Team (QRT) at around 7 am detected unusual truck movement in the Jammu area. Usually the truck movement starts after noon. But we noticed an unusual truck movement and the QRT chased the truck and intercepted it near the Sidhra check point,” he said.
The ADGP said the driver was asked to come down from the vehicle and on the pretext of attending to nature’s call, he fled away from the spot.
“While security men started search of the truck, they came under fire from within the truck. The fire was returned by the troops and four militants hiding in the truck were killed in the gunfight,” he said.
The truck, in which militants were hiding caught fire during the exchange of gunfire.
The ADGP said a large cache of arms and ammunition including 7 AK-47 rifles, one M4 rifle, 3 pistols along with other ammunition were recovered from the truck, which was going from Jammu to Srinagar.
He said the search operation in the area is going and a manhunt has been launched to track down the truck driver, who fled from the area. “The truck owner is yet to be identified”.
Immediately after the encounter, additional police and security men rushed to the area to tighten the siege.
A police official said an investigation has been launched to ascertain whether the militants were freshly infiltrated and if so, then which route they had taken to infiltrate from the other side of the border.
“The identity of the slain militants and the outfit to which they owe allegiance is also being ascertained,” a police official said adding, “Further investigation is going on”.