The army and the CRPF on Tuesday joined police in combing a vast forest in Udhampur district of Jammu to hunt down the three militants who escaped into the forest after killing a Special Operations Group of Police constable.
Officials said no contact was established during the day, suggesting the militants might have managed to give the forces the slip. On many occasions in recent years, militants have succeeded in escaping security cordons after inflicting casualties on the forces.
The operation in Udhampur came as an army jawan lost his life in a landmine explosion in the border Kupwara district in Kashmir.
The slain men, Constable Amjid Ali Khan and Havildar Zubair Ahmad of the army’s 13 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, were from the Pir Panchal region of Jammu.
“Heroes Never Die! Sh Nalin Prabhat, DGP, and All Ranks of J&K Police, salute the martyrdom of Ct Amjid Ali Khan, who made the supreme sacrifice, whilst combating Pakistani terrorists, in the forest of Soan, distt Udhampur. We share the pain and the grief of the martyr’s family,” Jammu and Kashmir police said on X.
Jammu’s inspector-general of police B.S. Tuti said a “very small team” of the SOG had rushed to Bajalta in Udhampur on Monday evening after credible information about the presence of three militants in the area. “There was a firefight in which our boy Amjid Ali Khan, who was from Poonch, got injured. We tried to extricate him, but unfortunately, we lost him because of blood loss,” the IG told reporters.
“The campaign is on. The terrorists, after the initial firefight, have fled to the forests. The forests have been encircled and we have launched a combing operation with assistance from the army and the CRPF.”
Tuti said the area where the militants had fled had dense forests. Some reports claimed two more cops were injured, but the police are tight-lipped about it. Police sources said no further firefighting took place on Tuesday.
“Terrorists resorted to indiscriminate fire last evening as efforts were underway to shift the injured cop to hospital. That delayed the evacuation. The area (where the militants have fled) is home to dense forests. We are moving cautiously,” the official said.
In Kashmir, an army soldier died in a landmine blast in Kupwara. Havildar Ahmad was injured in the blast at Putaha Khan Gali in Trehgam of the border district on Monday.
Militancy in Jammu’s 10 districts has emerged as a major challenge for security forces, with militants taking full advantage of its mountainous topography.
On September 19, an army soldier was killed in an encounter with a group of three to four heavily armed militants in Dudu-Basantgarh in the upper reaches of Udhampur district. Efforts to track down the militants failed. On April 24, an army soldier was killed in a gunfight with militants in Dudu-Basantgarh.