Fresh gunfight breaks out after contact established for fourth time in 2 weeks with JeM terrorists in Kishtwar

Jammu: A fresh contact was established early Saturday morning between security forces and a group of terrorists on the 14th day of an ongoing search operation, codenamed Trashi-I, triggering an encounter in a forest area in Chatroo subdivision of J&K’s Kishtwar district.

This is the fourth time in the past two weeks that a contact was established with the terrorists. Officials said intelligence from multiple credible sources had been coordinated to plan the operation on the ground.




“During the ongoing joint Operation TRASHI-I, contact with terrorists was re-established in the early hours in the general area of Dolgam by troops of White Knight Corps, J&K Police and CRPF,” the Army’s White Knight Corps, based in Jammu’s Nagrota, said in a post on X. “A cordon has been established and operations are in progress,” it added.

The Northern Army Commander, Lt-Gen Pratik Sharma, visited Kishtwar on Saturday to review the counter-terrorism grid, and commended the troops for their unwavering resolve in the ongoing anti-terror operation.

The operation was launched on Jan 18 to track down and neutralise a group of two to three Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists holed up in the snowbound Chatroo belt. After the initial gunfight in Sonnar village near Mandral-Singhpora on Jan 18, in which one trooper was killed and several others were injured, two more encounters took place on Jan 22 and Jan 25 in the general forest area of Mali Dana Top in Chatroo and the Janseer-Kandiwar forest area, respectively. The forces had on Jan 19-20 busted a terrorist hideout and found a huge quantity of assorted ration and other consumable items including Maggie packets, utensils and an LPG cylinder.

Security forces have intensified the search, with multiple teams comprising Army, police and paramilitary personnel, backed by drones and sniffer dogs, combing the hilly terrain to track the fleeing terrorists.

Mobile internet services were temporarily suspended on Friday within a six-km radius covering Singhpora, Chingam and Chatroo to prevent any misuse by anti-national elements during the ongoing operation.

Security forces also have launched a search operation following the sighting of a suspected Pakistani drone along the International Border (IB) in Jammu’s Samba district on Saturday. The drone briefly hovered over the Indian territory along the IB near Chillyari village before retreating, officials said.