3 detained amid hunt for ultras in Poonch

Jammu, October 17

Three persons, including a mother-son duo, were on Sunday detained for questioning during an ongoing search operation in the forest belt of Poonch and Rajouri border districts where nine soldiers have been killed in two separate gunfights with terrorists over the past week.

‘Gave logistic support to terrorists’

• According to security officials, a man along with a 45-year-old woman and her son, all residents of Bhatta Durrian forest, have been detained for giving logistic support to terrorists.
• It's unclear if they gave food and shelter to ultras voluntarily or at gunpoint.

“A man along with a 45-year-old woman and her son, all residents of Bhatta Durrian (Poonch) forest, were taken into custody for questioning on the suspicion of giving logistic support to terrorists,” officials said. It was a matter of investigation whether they provided food and shelter to the terrorists voluntarily or at gunpoint, they said.

The area is mountainous and the forest is dense, which makes the operation difficult and dangerous. So far, contact with hiding terrorists has been established thrice — first on October 11 in Poonch’s Surankote which was followed by another exchange of fire between the security forces and the fleeing terrorists in the adjoining Thanamandi forest in Rajouri district the same day but the ultras managed to escape in both the encounters, officials said. The third encounter took place in the Nar Khas forest in the Mendhar area of Poonch on Thursday evening.

“The presence of terrorists in the forest area connecting Poonch and Rajouri was observed two and a half months ago and accordingly tactical operations were launched to track them down,” Deputy Inspector General of Police, Rajouri-Poonch range, Vivek Gupta said on Saturday.

“A joint security grid was tracking different groups of terrorists,” the officer said.

Five Army personnel, including a junior commissioned officer (JCO), laid down their lives in a fierce gunfight during a counter-insurgency operation in Surankote forest on October 11. Four soldiers, including another JCO, died in another encounter in the Mendhar sector on Thursday evening. — PTI

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