ibn sultan
Jammu, Mar 29: Security forces on Saturday extended the ongoing search operation to new areas after the body of the fourth policeman and two slain militants were recovered from the scene of a gunfight in a remote forested area in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
Body of head constable Jagbir Singh was retrieved from Ghati Juthana forest in Rajbagh and was shifted to Jammu where a wreath laying ceremony for the deceased was held near police headquarters Gulshan Ground, they said.
The officials said bodies of two militants , believed to be affiliated with proscribed Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit, were also recovered along with war-like stores.
The encounter in the area began on Thursday morning and continued throughout the day on Friday. A total of four policemen and two recently infiltrated militants were killed, while the search for other members of the terrorist group is continuing for the third day on Saturday.
Earlier, officials had put the death toll of militants at three but the Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat late Friday evening clarified that only two militants and four policemen were killed in the encounter.
Bodies of three policemen — Balwinder Singh Chib, Jaswant Singh and Tariq Ahmed — were retrieved last evening and their wreath laying ceremony led by the DGP was held at District Police Lines Kathua before their bodies were handed over to their families.
The officials said security forces are sanitising the scene of the encounter while the search operation was extended to adjoining areas including Billawar heights to track down and neutralize the militants.
Gunfire and deafening sounds of explosions were also heard near the scene of the encounter this morning as well but it was later clarified that the firing was deliberate by the security forces as part of the counter terror strategy and the blasts were the result of disposing off littered explosive material, the officials said.
