Encounter in Doda; search operation in Kathua widened

Srinagar: A gunfight broke out between the armed forces and infiltrators on Tuesday afternoon in a remote forest area of Doda in Jammu and Kashmir. Officials said the exchange of fire took place during a cordon and search operation in Ghadi Bhagwah forest, following a tipoff regarding the movement of infiltrators in the area. "Two to three infiltrators were present in the area and heavy firing was going on in the area till late evening," an official said.

This is the third incident of violence in Jammu division in the last three days. Earlier, five armymen, including a junior commissioned officer, were killed and five others injured in Kathua district, while an armyman was injured on Sunday in Rajouri district.

Following the attack on the Machedi-Kindli-Malhar road near Badnota village, a massive search operation was underway in the area which is along the border, around 150 km from the main Kathua town. Top brass of the J&K police visited the area and held a security review meeting. The joint search operation teams of the Army, police and CRPF were assisted by drone surveillance and elite para commandos. Sniffer dogs have been deployed in the area to look for infiltrators in the thick forest region. A team of the National Investigation Agency officials have also reached the spot where the incident happened and started its probe into the matter.


Officials said the bodies of the five armymen from Uttarakhand have been handed over to the Army after postmortem and were airlifted to their homes for last rites.

The Jammu division has witnessed an increase in militant incidents over the past two years and in recent weeks, Kathua-Udhampur-Doda belt and the Poonch-Rajouri-Reasi belt in the division recorded militant attacks and operations against the freshly infiltrated groups, mostly operating from the forest areas.

Since October 2021, at least 45 armed forces personnel have been killed in the Jammu region in the intermittent high casualty operations.