Kathua gunfight: Search intensified after 3 suspected terrorists barge into house
On Sunday night, three suspected terrorists entered a house in Rui village in Juthana area and took away food from the kitchen, the officials said
Security forces intensified search operations on Monday using aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs following a night-long cordon after fresh reports of suspected movement of three individuals, believed to be terrorists, who escaped a recent encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, officials said.
Two terrorists and four policemen were killed, while three others, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured during a gunfight in a remote forested area in the Sanyal belt of the district on Thursday.
On Sunday night, three suspected terrorists entered a house in Rui village in Juthana area and took away food from the kitchen, the officials said. “Around 7 pm, three men attired in black with backpacks and guns appeared in my house. They demanded food and water. While two waited in the verandah, one entered the kitchen,” the woman resident said. “I gave them water but refused to give food. However, they forcibly took away the food from the kitchen and tried to give me two currency notes of ₹500 each but I refused,” she said, adding “They searched every room looking for other family members, but I was alone at that time.”
It is learnt that Shanker Lal, the owner, had fled the house when he noticed the three suspected terrorists entering the house. His relative Varinder Singh said, “The terrorists avoided the road and had come from a nullah (rivulet). They returned from the same route and disappeared in the jungle.”
Singh said, “It appears that the three terrorists, out of whom one was injured, have lost contact with their guide and wanted to take a male member along to help them find the escape route.”
The terrorists reportedly took a 13-year-old boy with them but he escaped by jumping off a hill.
The joint operation teams are also focusing on the overground and underground networks of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad in areas along the border.
Six family members of an over ground worker (OGW), Mohammad Latief, who is already in jail under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for helping the terrorists at Malhar in the Billawar area during the attack on an army truck recently, have been detained by police for questioning in connection with the gunbattle at Sufain village on Thursday and Friday.
It is difficult for terrorists to survive in the absence of a network of overground workers (OGWs), who provide them with food, shelter and escape routes, the officials said.
