Jammu, Feb 22 : A gunfight erupted on Sunday between the security forces and the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district.
Nagrota headquartered White Knight Corps of the Army said on X today, “??????? ??????????? ???? ?????????? | ?? ?????? – ? Troops of #WhiteKnightCorps, alongwith @JmuKmrPolice and #CRPF, in a joint operation, established contact with terrorists in the general area of Passerkut, #Kishtwar. Firefight is on. Troops have cordoned off the area. Operation continues.”
The Army has code-named the operation against terrorists in the Chatroo area as ‘Operation Trashi-I’.
Officials said the security forces, including the Army, J&K Police and the CRPF, launched a CASO (Cordon & Search Operation) in the forest area of Chatroo in Kishtwar district after receiving intelligence input about the presence of two to three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists hiding in the densely forested area.
“When the surrounding joint forces came close to the hiding terrorists, they fired, triggering an encounter which is now going on. Reinforcements have been rushed to the snowbound area,” officials said.
This is the second encounter in this area this month. Earlier, a gunfight broke out in the same densely forested area on February 4.
More than a dozen encounters have taken place during the last year between the security forces and the terrorists in the Chatroo area of Kishtwar.
It is believed that a group of foreign terrorists are operating in the area, who keep on changing location between Kishtwar, Doda and Udhampur districts.
The Army, J&K Police and the CRPF are on a hot chase of this group of Pakistani terrorists, and it is precisely because of this that the group is moving from one place to another instead of trying to attack the security forces.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has given clear orders for neutralisation of Pakistani terrorists in the hilly districts of the Jammu division.
The Union Home Minister called for a mission-mode approach to usher in complete peace in the union territory during his last visit to Jammu on February 7.
–IANS
