JCO Injured In Encounter In Poonch As Search For Terrorists Continue On The Sixth Day
The Indian Army has launched a massive search operation for a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) who had been missing since Thursday after he was injured during an encounter in Poonch.
On Friday, the army had confirmed that two soldiers - Rifleman Yogambar Singh and rifleman Vikram Singh Negi - were killed in the encounter that erupted in Poonch-Rajouri forests.
Initial reports had said that two soldiers including the JCO were killed, but only one body was recovered.
Later it was clarified that two riflemen were killed, while the contact with JOC who was also critically injured was lost.
"In an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the general area of Nar Khas forest in Mendhar sub-division there was an exchange of fire between army troops and terrorists during the evening hours of Thursday," a defence PRO said, adding that the body of the JCO is yet to be recovered.
Efforts are being made to trace the missing JCO and the area is prone to danger, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the search operation in the forest areas of Poonch and Rajouri to track down terrorists involved in the killing of seven Army soldiers entered its sixth day on Saturday.
They said gunshots were heard as the joint search parties of the Army and the police resumed the operation in Poonch's Mendhar area. However, it was not immediately clear whether it was speculative firing by the search parties or fresh contact was established with the terrorists, they said.
The area is mountainous and the forest is dense, which makes the operation difficult and dangerous, according to the officials.
A vast forest area of Mendhar has been under tight security cordon since Thursday, when riflemen Vikram Singh Negi and Yogambar Singh, both from Uttarakhand, were killed in an encounter with terrorists in the Nar Khas forest.
Earlier on October 11, five Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), were killed when terrorists attacked a search party in Poonch's Surankote forest.
There was an exchange of fire between the Army search parties and the fleeing terrorists in the adjoining Thanamandi forest in Rajouri the same day.
The officials said that the entire forest area from Mendhar to Thanamandi remains under a strict cordon and a massive search operation is on to neutralise the terrorists who are moving from one place to another in an attempt to escape the dragnet.
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