10 days on, search for ultras goes on in dense forests of Poonch, Rajouri

Jammu, October 20

The massive search operation against holed-up terrorists continued for the tenth day on Wednesday in the dense forests of 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 the 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.

Loud explosions and gunfire rattled Bhatta Durrian which turned out to be the speculative fire used by the search parties to sanitise a suspected location. — PTI

Nine soldiers killed so far

• The operation commenced on October 11 when terrorists killed five soldiers, including a JCO, in the Surankote forest of Poonch.
• On October 14, terrorists killed four soldiers, including a JCO, in Nar Khas forest in Mendhar during a cordon-and-search operation.