10 days on, search in Poonch-Rajouri forests

Jammu, October 20

The massive search operation against holed-up terrorists continued for the tenth day on Wednesday in the dense forests of Poonch and Rajouri districts, where nine Army personnel were killed in two separate attacks last week, officials said.

However, there was no contact with the terrorists as the joint search parties of the Army and special operations group of the local police moved cautiously in the dense forests of Mendhar and Surankote in Poonch and Thanamandi in Rajouri, clearing a vast area during the day, they said.

Loud explosions and gunfire rattled Bhatta Durrian earlier during the day which turned out to be the speculative fire used by the search parties to sanitise a suspected location deep inside the forest belt in Mendhar.

The Army had on Tuesday intensified the operation against the holed-up terrorists in Bhatta Durrian forest in Mendhar, where the locals were asked not to venture out of their homes.

Also on Tuesday, Army Chief General MM Naravane had visited forward areas along the LoC to review the ground situation and ongoing counter-infiltration operations.

The operation in the forest areas in the twin border districts commenced on October 11 and till now nine soldiers, including two JCOs, have lost their lives. — PTI