A soldier, who was critically injured in a gunfight with terrorists, succumbed to his injuries as the Army and police resumed a joint hunt for terrorists in a remote forest area in the higher reaches of the Udhampur district early Saturday, officials said.

The soldier was injured late Friday evening when terrorists opened fire on the joint search party of the Army and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police at the Seoj Dhar forest border in the Dudu-Basantgarh area of Udhampur and Bhaderwah in Doda, the officials said.

They said the soldier was shifted to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The area around the scene of the encounter was kept under tight cordon during the night and the joint search operation resumed on Saturday morning, the officials said, adding that two to three terrorists are believed to be hiding in the forest area.

Reinforcements equipped with drones and sniffer dogs were rushed from both Udhampur and Doda sides and a massive search operation was underway when last reports were received, the officials said. However, there was no fresh contact with the terrorists so far, they added.

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