Nine Army personnel including two JCO's and an arrested Pakistani terrorist have been killed and three security men injured since the commencement of the operation on October 11.
While the operation to track down the terrorists in the forest belt of Poonch-Rajouri was underway, the security forces received information about the suspected movement of terrorists in the vast forest area of Khabla along the Mughal Road in the early hours of Saturday, the officials said.
The operation to track down a group of hiding terrorists, who are responsible for the killing of nine soldiers, in Bhatti Durrian forest in Mendhar along with Surankote forest in Poonch and nearby Thanamandi in Rajouri district entered the 21st day on Sunday, the officials said.
Officials said the entire forest area from Mendhar to Thanamandi remains under a strict cordon and a massive search operation is on to neutralise the terrorists moving from one place to another in an attempt to escape the dragnet.
An arrested Pakistani terrorist was killed, while three security personnel were injured on Sunday when militants opened fire on a joint search party of the Army and police inside a forest in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
The planned phased withdrawal of the Army from certain areas of the Jammu region has been shelved "indefinitely" in view of terror attacks being orchestrated from across the border, officials said in Srinagar.
An army captain and a junior commissioned officer (JCO) were killed in an accidental grenade blast along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, officials said on Monday.
As the counter-insurgency operation in the forest belt of Jammu and Kashmir's twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri entered the ninth day on Tuesday, public announcements were made in Mendhar asking local residents to stay indoors for their safety, officials said.
Officials said gunshots were heard as the joint search parties of the Army and the police resumed the operation in Poonch's Mendhar area. However, it was not immediately clear whether it was speculative firing by the search parties or fresh contact was established with the terrorists, they said.
Several counter-terrorist operations and encounters have taken place in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch this year.
Army Chief General M M Naravane carried out an aerial reconnaissance of forward areas on Wednesday and was briefed about the prevailing security situation along the Line of Control (LOC) in the Jammu region, officials said.
Fourteen people were detained for questioning, officials said, adding that some of them have been let off.
Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi visited the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch and took stock of the ongoing operation, the officials said, adding he asked the troops to be relentless in their pursuit.
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Another soldier was seriously injured in the incident and was evacuated immediately to the Army Hospital at Rajouri, they said.
Army chief General M M Naravane visited forward areas along the Line of Control in Jammu region on Tuesday and was briefed on the ground situation in the region and ongoing counter-infiltration operations, officials said.
A terrorist was killed and another was most likely injured on Saturday in an ongoing operation in the densely forested area of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir, Army said.
Mukhtar Hussain Shah, a resident of Nar village in the district's Mendhar tehsil, was disturbed as he was facing some domestic issues, he said, adding that he was not summoned as a suspect.
Indian troops retaliated befittingly to silence the Pakistani guns along the LoC in Mankote, Mendhar and Khari Karmara sectors in Poonch district and along the IB in Hiranagar sector of Kathua district, they said, adding there was no immediate report of any casualty.
While the elderly woman was killed in heavy shelling by Pakistan in Poonch district of the Jammu region, two civilians were injured in Tangdhar sector of north Kashmir's Kupwara district, they said.
Army's counter-terrorism operation in the Nar Khas forest area of Poonch continued on Friday morning.
A senior army officer on Monday cautioned youngsters against drug abuse saying, 'The enemy nation is using narcotics as a weapon to destroy our coming generations.'
Pakistan's western front continues to remain unstable and it fishing in troubled waters of Afghanistan is going to come and bite it in the future, Army Chief General M M Naravane said on Thursday.
The Ameer-E-Shariat Karnataka, Maulana Sagir Ahmad Khan Rashadi, has called for a state-wide bandh on Thursday over the verdict of the high court ruling that the hijab was not essential to the practice of Islam.
It is learnt that the sympathisers of the Taliban who are targeting India are now active.
As many as 58 students at Shiralakoppa in Shivamogga district who had refused to remove their hijab and staged a demonstration against the government pre-university college administration were suspended.
The intense shelling from across the border also prompted the authorities to suspend class work in nearly half a dozen government-run schools falling within the firing range in Poonch district.
'Since the Covid virus has a tendency to mutate, we can continue to expect new variants of the virus to emerge and keep circulating and recirculating in the communities.'
Thinning out of the counter infiltration and counter terrorism grid is fraught with the danger of revival of terrorism in the Poonch-Rajouri area, cautions Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd), the counter-insurgency expert.
The retaliation also comes after an Indian Army solider was killed in Pakistan firing along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on last Saturday.
A 39-year-old Chandigarh resident who had returned from South Africa a few days ago tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and his sample will now be sent to Delhi for whole genome sequencing.
Pakistani troops on Saturday evening violated the ceasefire on the Line of Control at two places in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district of Jammu region.
Two security forces personnel have been booked for their alleged involvement in the death of a youth in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, police said on Sunday.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Babu Ram and Constable Altaf Hussain Bhat of Jammu and Kashmir Police were on Saturday posthumously conferred with the Ashoka Chakra and the Kirti Chakra awards respectively on the eve of the 75th Independence Day. While the Ashoka Chakra is India's highest peacetime gallantry honour, Kirti Chakra is the second in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards.
The condition of the injured is stated to be stable, the officials said.
Officials said the authorities took 20 leaders, including Sartaj Madni, Mansoor Hussain and Naeem Akhtar of the PDP, into preventive custody during the day.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra was Wednesday briefed about Tuesday's shooting incident by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in Mendhar in Poonch district.
The Pakistani army has denied reports that two Indian soldiers were killed in a border clash between the two armies in the Mendhar sector at the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu region on Tuesday.
The report published in the gazettes of India appeared in local newspapers on Monday and showed that Habba Kadal seat in Kashmir division and Suchetgarh seat in Jammu province had been restored.
The army on Wednesday apprehended a Lashkar-e-Tayiba activist in the Mendhar area of district Poonch while he was trying to cross over to India. Mukhtiar Ahmed, who originally hails from Surankot area, had crossed over to Pakistan in 2002 and joined LeT there, officials said.
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