kathua-forest-operation-enters-day-3-search-continues

The search to track down the militants hiding in the forest area in Kathua district enters the third day on Tuesday, officials said.

 

The charge of operation led by the Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat was launched on Sunday evening in the Hiranagar sector following an encounter between security forces and militants hiding in a nursery.

 

While moving deep inside the cordoned-off area this morning, a barrage of gunfire was heard. However, officials confirmed that it was a speculative firing resorted to by the troops after they noticed some suspicious movement.

 

The army has deployed UAVs and also pressed helicopters in the service to monitor the situation from above; commandos equipped with heavy weapons, along with sniffer dogs, continued their joint operation in the area where militants are believed to be trapped, officials said.

 

The operation was launched by a Special Operations Group of police after they got intelligence about the presence of terrorists inside a ‘Dhok’ — a local term for an enclosure — in a nursery in Sanyal village, approximately five km from the international border with Pakistan, officials said.

 

Militants hiding in the area fired several rounds of ammunition at the forces closing in on the spot, leading to a fierce gunfight that lasted for 30 minutes, they said.

 

Shortly after the confrontation, reinforcements were quickly dispatched, as the manhunt to track down militants was launched.

 

Reports suggest that these militants infiltrated on Saturday via either the ravine or through a newly dug tunnel from the Pakistan side.

 

Meanwhile, there has been no report of any casualty in the initial firing and the area was kept under a tight security cordon throughout the night before the security forces moved in at the crack of dawn, officials.

 

Though there has been no fresh contact with the militants, the search parties on Monday found four loaded magazines of M4 carbine, two grenades, a bulletproof jacket, sleeping bags, tracksuits, several packets of eatables, and separate polythene bags, the contents of which will be known only when they are opened by the bomb disposal squad, they said.