The massive search operation against holed-up terrorists continued for the tenth day on Wednesday in the dense forests of Jammu and Kashmir’s 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 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.
The operation in the forest areas in the twin border districts commenced on October 11 when terrorists ambushed a search party killing five soldiers including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Surankote forest of Poonch before another gunfight in nearby Thanamandi on the same day. The terrorists fled both places after the encounters.
Drones and helicopters were pressed into service to assist the marching troops, which included para-commandos, in the jungle spread over nearly 8 km X 2 km area at a distance of four km from the Line of Control, the officials said.
The traffic, meanwhile, between Mendhar and Thanamandi along the Jammu-Rajouri highway remained suspended as a precautionary measure in the wake of the ongoing operation.
