Encounter breaks out between security forces and terrorists in J&K’s Kishtwar

Jammu- An encounter broke out on Sunday between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district.

The Indian Army’s White Knight Corps, headquartered at Nagrota, said in a post on X: “Contact established with terrorists | Op Trashi-I. Troops of #WhiteKnightCorps, along with @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 counter-terror operation in the Chatroo area as Operation Trashi-I.

Officials said that security forces — including the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF — launched a cordon and search operation (CASO) in the forested area of Chatroo following intelligence inputs about the presence of two to three terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad.

“When the joint forces moved closer to the hiding terrorists, they opened fire, triggering the encounter. Reinforcements have been rushed to the snowbound area,” officials said.

This is the second encounter in the area this month. Earlier, a gunfight had taken place in the same forested region on February 4.

More than a dozen encounters have occurred in the Chatroo area over the past year. Security agencies believe that a group of foreign terrorists is operating in the region, frequently changing locations between Kishtwar, Doda and Udhampur districts.

The Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF are continuing a sustained operation against this group, forcing the terrorists to remain on the move instead of attempting direct attacks.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has issued clear instructions for the neutralisation of Pakistani terrorists in the hilly districts of the Jammu division. During his visit to Jammu on February 7, he called for a mission-mode approach to ensure complete peace in the Union Territory.

With inputs from IANS