Lagatar24 Desk
Poonch, Oct.25: Firing continued at the encounter location in Mendhar’s Bhata Dhurian forest on Monday, which along with surrounding forest areas adjoining Surankote (Poonch) and Thanamandi in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, is undergoing a large search operation.
On Monday, the operation entered its 15th day, after nine Army men were murdered in separate ambushes in Surankote and Mendhar on October 11 and 14.
When terrorists opened fire on a joint search party of the Army and police within a forest in Poonch district on Sunday, an arrested Pakistani terrorist was killed and three security officers were injured.
According to an official, Detenue Zia Mustafa, a Pakistani terrorist of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was carried to Bhata Dhurian for the purpose of identifying a terrorist hideout during a joint search operation in which three army jawans and a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) were martyred.
“During the search, when the team approached the hideout, terrorists again opened fire on the joint team of police and army personnel in which two policemen and an army jawan sustained injuries. Zia Mustafa also sustained injuries and during the subsequent operation, additional reinforcements were sent and the dead body of Zia Mustafa was retrieved from the encounter site,” the official added.
The operation in the twin border districts’ forest areas began on October 11 when terrorists ambushed a search party in Surankote woodland in Poonch, killing five soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), before another shootout broke out the next day in neighbouring Thanamandi.
On October 14, terrorists struck again in Mendhar’s Nar Khas woodland, killing four troops, including a JCO, as security forces continued their cordon and search operation to apprehend the fleeing terrorists.
