Two terrorists killed, another arrested in Poonch gun battle

Jammu, December 13

Two terrorists were killed and another was captured following a gunfight in the higher reaches of Surankot in Poonch district on Sunday, officials said.

The terrorists are believed to have infiltrated from across the Line of Control (LoC) three days ago and were headed to south Kashmir’s Shopian district when they were intercepted in a snow-bound area along Mughal Road, the officials said.

They said it was a joint group of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists and were pushed into this side in an apparent attempt to disturb the ongoing District Development Council (DDC) elections.

The officials said the police, assisted by the Army, launched a joint cordon and search operation in remote Chattapani-Dugran village after getting information about the presence of three suspected terrorists.

The terrorists were trapped in a snow-bound area and were asked to surrender, but they refused and fired indiscriminately at the security forces in an attempt to break the cordon, they said, adding the security forces retaliated and killed two of the terrorists.

Another one was captured during the gunfight, the officials said.

They said both the slain terrorists were suspected to be Pakistani nationals.

On getting information about terrorists’ presence, the security forces launched an operation and plugged all escape routes, but the snowfall slowed down the chase. Following an improvement in weather, the operation resumed this morning and a contact was established with the terrorists, who were offered to surrender, but they declined and triggered a gunfight. — PTI

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