J&K: 4 policemen injured in encounter with terrorists in Kathua’s Juthana area

Four Jammu and Kashmir policemen, including a sub divisional police officer, were injured in an encounter that broke out between security forces and terrorists in the Juthana area of Dinga Amb in Kathua district on Thursday morning.

Police said the injured policemen, including deputy SP Dheeraj Katoch, had been rushed to Government Medical College and Hospital at Kathua, where their condition was stated to be stable.

The encounter started while search operations were underway in the forests adjoining Saniyal village of the district. Juthana is 37km from Saniyal village.

On Tuesday, a local resident, Darshana Devi, had informed the police that two men in army fatigues carrying backpacks had asked her for water. The woman said the duo then went back inside the jungle in the area.

Since Tuesday evening, security forces had cordoned off the area and searches were launched.

Officials believe the terrorists are from the same group that managed to escape after an encounter in the Dolka forest near Saniyal village in Hiranagar sector on Sunday evening.

Defence spokesperson Lt Col Suneel Bartwal confirmed that an encounter has broken out with the forces in Juthana area.

Amid intelligence inputs of fresh infiltration from across the international border, security has been intensified along the Jammu-Pathankot national highway in the Samba-Kathua section.

The search operations involving the army, NSG, BSF, police, Special Operation Group, and CRPF armed with technical and surveillance equipment, is supported by helicopter, UAVs, drones, bulletproof vehicles, and sniffer dogs.