A joint team of security forces initiated a cordon-and-search operation in the Malhar area of Kathua district on Monday following reports of two suspected terrorists sighting in the region. Later in the day, Lieutenant General P K Mishra, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the White Knight Corps, along with Major General A P S Bal, GOC of CIF-Delta, visited Seoj Dhar to assess the current anti-terror operations in the hilly districts of Udhampur, Doda, and Kishtwar in Jammu Division.
The suspected armed duo was allegedly seen in Dragal village, prompting extensive searches by a collaborative force comprising the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Officials indicated that sniffer dogs and surveillance units were also used during the operation, which continued without having traced the suspects by late Monday.
Following an uptick in violence, considerable searches have been underway in the Seoj Dhar forest along the Dudu-Basantgarh corridor, adjacent to Doda’s Bhaderwah, after a soldier was killed by terrorists on Friday. This incident has raised this year’s security-related fatalities in counter-terrorism operations in the region to 20—14 in Jammu and six in Kashmir. Additionally, on Sunday, a gunfight erupted between security forces and militants in Keshwan forest, Kishtwar.
Despite the lack of further contact with militants after the initial exchanges of gunfire in Seoj Dhar and Keshwan, aerial surveillance was maintained by helicopters and drones as the joint teams of the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and CRPF combed both forested areas, supported by sniffer dogs, according to official reports.
