Srinagar:
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have launched a major crackdown on terror network after a deadly encounter in the Union Territory’s Doda in which four personnel of the army including an officer were killed in action on Monday.
The police say several overground workers and supporters of terrorists have been arrested and the crackdown has been intensified. Meanwhile, a counter-terror operation is underway in the Desa area of Doda.
A large number of troops from the army and para-military forces are conducting search operations and area domination in the region.
The firing was first reported in the Kalaan Bhata last night and then near Panchan Bhata at 2 am during the ongoing anti-terrorist operation in the Desa forest area, where four Army personnel were killed in the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
The Doda Encounter
Four Indian Army soldiers, including an officer, were killed in action during an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
Captain Brijesh Thapa, Naik D Rajesh, Sepoy Bijendra, and Sepoy Ajay laid down their lives in the line of duty.
This was the second major encounter in the Jammu region after five soldiers were killed in action in Kathua last week.
The attack, in which five soldiers were also injured, was a coordinated strike on two trucks carrying at least 12 troops.
The terrorists targeted the trucks, which were around 500 metres apart, with grenades and, in worrying signs, used armour-piercing bullets (those tipped with hardened steel) and an M4 assault rifle.
Terrorist attacks, which started in Poonch and Rajouri districts, have now spread across Jammu, the region that was free from terrorism till a few years ago.
Over the last 32 months, 48 soldiers have been killed in action in the Jammu region.