SRINAGAR: Two soldiers were killed and two others injured in an encounter with militants in the mountainous Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. An army official said acting on specific inputs, J&K Police and army launched a joint search operation in Chatroo area of the Kishtwar district on today morning.  He said the searches continued throughout the day and at around 3.30 pm, contact was established with the hiding militants.

“The militants fired on the search party. The fire was returned by the troops, triggering an encounter,” the security official said. In the gunfight, four soldiers sustained injuries. Two of them were critically injured. All the four injured soldiers were evacuated to nearby military hospital, where two of them succumbed to injuries. After the gunfight, more troops were rushed to the area to tighten the siege and prevent the militants from escaping from the area. The security men used drones and other electronic gadgets for aerial surveillance to locate the movement of the militants, who were hiding in the forest area.

The Jammu region has seen many militant attacks and gunfights since June this year. In these militant attacks, many security men, mostly armymen have been killed. The authorities have deployed 4000 additional troops including 500 elite commandos in Jammu region to tackle the growing militancy. Besides, the Village Defence Groups (VDGs) have been revived and the VDG members have been armed with self automatic SLR rifles.