A CRPF jawan was killed in the ongoing encounter with terrorists in the Saida Sukhal village, near the Pakistan border, in Kathua district, while five soldiers of the Army and a cop were injured in a separate mid-night terrorist attack in the Doda district.
Both these terror strikes have come two days after the killing of 9 pilgrims in the Reasi district.
Advertisement
The CRPF jawan identified as Kabir Dass of 121 Battalion was critically injured during the gunfight with terrorists in the Saida Sukhal village, and later succumbed in the hospital, officials said.
One heavily armed Pakistani terrorist was killed and an operation is underway to neutralise the other two who attacked inmates of a house in the Saida Sukhal village of the Hiranagar Sector of Jammu on Tuesday evening.
One civilian, Onkar (45) received multiple bullet injuries, including one on his left arm, and was rushed to the hospital at Kathua.
While the top Army, Police and CRPF officers were supervising the operation in the Saida Sukhal village, another terrorist attack was reported at a joint check post at Chattergalla on the Bhaderwah-Chamba road in the Doda district where 5 troops of the 4 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and a special police officer (SPO) were injured.
Additional DGP (Jammu) Anand Jain was personally monitoring the operations against the terrorists.
Reports said two senior officers of J&K Police, one DIG rank and another SSP rank, had a narrow escape after their vehicles came under firing by the terrorists in the Kathua village. About a dozen bullets were fired at their vehicles, reports said.
Having remained dormant for several years, the Kashmir Tigers terrorist outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack in Doda.
ADGP Jain said that the attack in the Kathua village appears to have been done by freshly infiltrated terrorists.
Police said that the group of terrorists barged into a house yesterday and asked for drinking water that was denied by the inmates. The terrorists fled towards forests and fired in the air to scare the villagers who noticed their suspicious movement at about 7.45 pm.
Thereafter, the area was cordoned by the Army, CRPF and J&K Police and the encounter broke out. Police said the dead terrorist had Rs 1 lakh in Indian currency in his bag. Besides, the items recovered from the slain terrorist included three magazines containing 30 rounds, one magazine having 24 rounds, 75 rounds in a separate polythene bag, three live grenades, eatables (Pakistan-made chocolates, dry chana and stale rotis, medicines and injections, painkillers, one syringe, two packs of A4 batteries, one handset wrapped in tape having antenna and two wires hanging from this handset).
Meanwhile, the Reasi Police has released the sketch of terrorists involved in the attack on the pilgrims bus and has announced a reward of Rs 20 lakh to anyone providing credible information about the whereabouts of these terrorists.
With these attacks, six of the ten districts of Jammu have witnessed terror activity in the past few days.