Nine soldiers were killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Saturday in the sixth day. The death toll rose after the bodies of a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and a jawan were recovered from Mendhar area of Poonch today.
A massive search operation was earlier launched in the forest areas of the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir to trace the terrorists involved in the killing of Army personnel. Officials told CNN-News 18 that gunshots were heard as a joint search party of the army and police resumed operations in Poonch’s Mendhar area. However, it was not immediately clear whether it was the firing by the search parties or fresh contact was established with the terrorists.
According to officials, the area is hilly and the forest is dense, making the operation difficult and dangerous. A vast forest area of Mendhar has been under tight security since Thursday, when Uttarakhand’s Riflemen Vikram Singh Negi and Yogmber Singh, both were killed in an encounter with terrorists in Nar Khas forest.
Earlier on October 11, five Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), were killed in an attack by terrorists on a search party in Poonch’s Surankote forest. On the same day, a gunfight broke out between the search parties of the army and the fleeing terrorists in Thanamandi forest near Rajouri.
The entire forest area from Mendhar to Thanamandi has been cordoned off and a massive search operation is on to neutralize the terrorists moving from one place to another in an attempt to escape the trap, officials said. He said that the traffic on the Jammu-Rajouri highway remained disrupted for the second day in view of the ongoing operation between Mendhar and Thanamandi.
Rajouri-Poonch range Deputy Inspector General of Police Vivek Gupta had said on Tuesday that terrorists involved in the attack on security forces in Poonch were present in the area for the last two to three months. Infiltration attempts in Jammu region’s Rajouri and Poonch have increased since June this year, resulting in the killing of nine terrorists in separate encounters.
Meanwhile, a defense spokesman said the bodies of Riflemen Negi and Singh were brought to Uttarakhand this morning after a wreath laying ceremony by a service aircraft. He told that the plane will reach Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun at 11.30 am.
He said the mortal remains of the soldiers would be taken to their hometowns by road from the airport and their last rites would be performed with full military honours.
(with PTI inputs)
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