In the midst of a large anti-terror operation that is currently in its fourth day, a new gunfight broke out between security forces and terrorists in the Kathua area of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, killing three police officers and injuring two more, according to officials. The incident also resulted in the shooting deaths of two terrorists.
Security personnel located the four to five terrorists who were hiding in a heavily forested area of Juthana, according to earlier sources. Approximately 30 kilometers from the Hiranagar area, the scene of a prior gunfight on Sunday, March 23, the firefight started close to Jakhole hamlet. According to officials, a continuing firefight between the two sides was taking place at the time of the last reports, and reinforcements had been hurried to the scene.
In Juthana, the Army’s special forces were active as part of the counter-terrorism campaign. In order to supervise the operation, Jammu and Kashmir DGP Nalin Prabhat had hurried to the scene of the encounter.
According to security services, the terrorists who engaged in the encounter on Thursday are the same ones that escaped following the gunfight in Hiranagar on Sunday. Their presence inside a ‘dhok’, a small enclosure, at a nursery at Sanyal village, close to the International Border with Pakistan, prompted the SOG to conduct that operation.
The encounter lasted more than 30 minutes before the terrorists fled. Since March 22, a massive search operation has been conducted by the Army, police, BSF, CRPF, NSG, and others. The military were searching the area for the infiltrators using cutting-edge surveillance tools like drones, UAVs, and bulletproof cars.
