SRINAGAR: A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of Indian army was killed in an encounter with militants close to Line of Control (LoC) in Akhnoor in Jammu while three militants were killed in the ongoing gunfight with security forces in mountainous Kishtwar district of J&K.
Defence sources said army men guarding the LoC detected movement of militants near a stream in Kheri Bhattal area of Akhnoor sector during the night. They said the army men fired on the militants, who retaliated and in the ensuing firefight, a JCO was critically injured. The injured JCO was shifted to nearby military hospital, where he succumbed to injuries in the morning.
The deceased JCO has been identified as Kuldip Chand. Additional troops have been rushed to the area to assist troops on the ground in the search operation.
Meanwhile, three militants have been killed by security forces in the ongoing anti-militancy operation in Chatroo forest area of Kishtwar district of J&K.An army official said while one militant was killed in the morning yesterday, two more militants were killed in the evening. He said all the three slain militants were Pakistanis.
“An AK rifle, one M4 Rifle and other equipments have been recovered from the possession of the slain militants,” he said. It is suspected top Jaish commander Saifullah alongwith two of his associates, who were active in the area, have been killed in the gunfight.
A security official said the search operation was going on and troops were using drones, helicopters and sniffer dogs to track the movement of the militants in the dense forest area with difficult mountainous terrain and covered with snow.
The elite para commandos are assisting the troops in the operation. Another anti-militancy operation is also going on in Jopher-Marta forest area in Udhampur district of Jammu province.
“The search operation in the forest area was launched on Wednesday after receiving inputs that a group of three militants are hiding in the forest area. There was a two hour long gunfight with militants on Wednesday but militants managed to move deep in the forest area. The search operation is going on but there has been no fresh contact with the hiding militants,” a security official said.
The gunfights in Akhnoor, Kishtwar and Udhampur have taken place after four policemen and two militants were killed in a firefight in the forest area of Kathua in Jammu region last month.