Jammu, January 2
The Army has gunned down four terrorists in a night-long gun battle that continued for the second day today, while two of its soldiers also lost their lives.
On specific information that six heavily-armed terrorists were seen in the Pati Tar area of Poonch, the Army cordoned off the area and asked the militants to surrender. However, the militants started firing indiscriminately killing two soldiers.
The Army retaliated and in the ensuing gun battle four terrorists were killed. “The militants opened fire on the cordon and search operation party and also tried to break the cordon. In the initial rounds of firing, two soldiers lost their lives,” an Army officer said.
He added that “the Army retaliated and engaged the militants in the gunfight, killing four of them.”
According to available reports, the encounter was still on for the second day and reinforcement had been called for to flush out the remaining terrorists.
“The gunfight started last evening after the Army and a special operation group of the state police jointly launched a search operation in the Pati Tar forests area following inputs of militants’ presence in a hideout there”, Udhampur-based PRO of the Army Col D.K. Katchari told The Tribune.
He said the area was heavily forested and the search was still going on to see if the number of hiding terrorists was more.
