Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Eight Army personnel were injured on Sunday in a prolonged gunfight with terrorists in a remote forested area of the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district.The encounter, which lasted for several hours, erupted when security forces came in contact with terrorists during a search operation in the general area of Sonnar, northeast of Chatroo. The operation, launched around noon, has been named Operation Trashi-I by the Army’s Jammu-based White Knight Corps.
In a post on X, the White Knight Corps said the search was part of ongoing joint counter-terror operations being conducted with the Jammu and Kashmir Police. “Operations remain underway with additional forces inducted to reinforce the cordon, supported by close coordination with civil administration and security agencies,” the Army said, praising the troops for their professionalism while responding to hostile fire in difficult terrain and conditions.Officials said one of the search teams encountered a group of two to three foreign terrorists, believed to be affiliated with Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). The terrorists allegedly opened indiscriminate fire and hurled grenades in an attempt to break the cordon. The troops retaliated, following which reinforcements from the Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and police were rushed to the area to tighten the cordon.Intermittent firing continued until around 5.40 pm. Eight soldiers sustained injuries, mostly splinter wounds from grenade blasts, and were evacuated to hospital. A massive search operation is continuing to track down and neutralise the terrorists.Advanced surveillance equipment, including drones, along with sniffer dogs, has been deployed to speed up the operation.This is the third encounter between security forces and terrorists in the Jammu region this year. Earlier gunfights were reported in the Kahog and Najote forests of the Billawar area in Kathua district on January 7 and 13.On December 15 last year, a police officer was killed in an encounter with terrorists in Soan village of the Majalta area in Udhampur district. The terrorists managed to escape by taking advantage of thick foliage and darkness.These encounters come in the wake of a major counter-terror operation launched across forest belts of the Jammu region in December last year to flush out nearly three dozen terrorists believed to be hiding in the area.Security operations have been further intensified ahead of Republic Day amid intelligence inputs of renewed attempts by Pakistan-based handlers to push in more terrorists, officials said.
