Terrorists’ food stop in Udhampur village triggers searches, spurs wider anti-infiltration ops

A policeman died during the encounter, while two of the three terrorists were believed to have been injured. The latter fled, taking advantage of darkness and dense forests.

According to sources, two terrorists took food from Mangtu Ram’s house around 6.30 pm Saturday, prompting security forces to immediately cordon off the village and launch searches.

Meanwhile, in a bid to rule out every possibility of terrorist infiltration, the Jammu and Kashmir Police and security forces have launched a joint operation stretching from the international border to the mountains along the Line of Control.

The searches — part of an area domination exercise — followed intelligence inputs suggesting possible infiltration by terrorists taking advantage of fog amid a sudden surge in terrorist activity at launch pads across the international border along Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Rajouri districts.

A senior BSF officer had last month said that nearly seven months after suffering large-scale damage to its defence infrastructure during Op Sindoor by India, Pakistan has again activated nearly 72 terror launch pads opposite Jammu province in areas not far from the border.

These terror launch pads have been set up in depth areas close to the border, he had said, adding that 12 terrorist launch pads have become active in the Sialkot and Zafarwal areas near the IB and another 60 across the LoC.