Three soldiers injured in gunfight with terrorists in Rajouri

Three soldiers suffered injuries in a gunfight with terrorists inside Broh forests in Kalakote area of Rajouri, officials said on Tuesday.

The encounter between the security forces and the terrorists, believed to be two or three in number, broke out during a search operation in the forest area on Monday evening when the terrorists hiding in the area opened fire at the forces in an attempt to break the cordon, the officials said.

The Army along with police had cordoned off the Broh and Soom forest belt in Kalakote area early on Monday following information about suspicious movement.

The soldiers, who were injured on Monday evening, were shifted to a hospital and additional reinforcements were rushed to the site of the encounter, which was still going on till the filing of the report.

Jammu-based defence spokesperson Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said, “Technology is being used to monitor the terrorists. Presently, intense operations are under progress.”

“Following successful operations in the same area on September 13, due to continual flow of intelligence, area domination and constant pressure on the terrorists, a specific intelligence about movement of some suspected individuals was received on October 1 by the police. A joint operation by the Indian Army and police was launched in general area Kalakote,” Bartwal said.

Official sources said that security forces suspect the presence of two to three heavily armed terrorists in the jungle area, where the operation has been launched.

On September 12 and 13, security forces had gunned down two terrorists in Narla area of Rajouri district.

A soldier besides an army dog ‘Kent’ laid down their lives in the line of duty and four security personnel, including three soldiers and a special police officer, were injured during the encounter.

On September 11, Northern Army commander Lt General Dwivedi had informed at the North Tech Symposium that nearly 200 terrorists were waiting across the LoC in Pakistan.

“They are waiting to infiltrate but our alert troops are deployed at the borders and we are trying to eliminate them there itself,” he had said.

In the past nine months, 47 terrorists have been killed in the region. At least 37 among them were foreign terrorists and nine were locals.

Since January this year, two border districts of Rajouri and Poonch have witnessed a spike in terrorism.

The twin border districts, south of Pir Panjal, witnessed three major terror attacks- on January 1 at Dhangri, on April 20 at Tota Gali in Poonch and on May 5 in Kandi forests of Rajouri.

In the three attacks, the terrorists killed 10 soldiers and seven members of the Hindu community.