A joint team of security forces led by the elite Para Commandos of the Indian Army on Thursday gunned down at least two heavily armed foreign terrorists during a day-long fierce gunfight in which five security personnel, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, received critical injuries in the Juthana forest area of Rajbagh in the Kathua district.

Till late evening, the security personnel had not retrieved the dead bodies of slain terrorists from inside the thick forest area. Unconfirmed reports, however, claimed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had spotted some dead bodies in the area. The operation was reportedly halted due to pitch-dark conditions and is likely to be resumed with the first light on Friday morning.

The security forces on ground zero were maintaining a tight cordon to prevent any terrorists from fleeing the area, taking advantage of the hilly terrain.

The local police authorities are yet to confirm whether the same group of foreign terrorists, who were spotted in the Sanyal area of Hiranagar on Sunday, were trapped by the security forces in the Juthana area of Kathua, or whether they were part of another group of terrorists who had managed to reach Juthana forest area without facing any resistance even during high alert sounded in the area.

According to official sources, "a fresh encounter broke out early Thursday morning in the Juthana area under the jurisdiction of Rajbagh police station around 7 am". A search party, carrying out combing and search operations in the general area of Hiranagar since Sunday evening, was initially fired upon by the terrorists, following which a fierce gun fight broke out in the area.

Senior army officers of the Rising Star Corps and DGP J&K Police were supervising the operations to neutralise the group of terrorists roaming in the area.

Till late evening, the security forces in the area had recovered only one dead body of a slain foreign terrorist, while searches were going on to retrieve the second dead body as well. Out of the five injured security personnel, a para commando, who had received gunshot injuries, was airlifted, while four others were admitted in the Government Medical College, Kathua.

Out of these four, one soldier who needed cardiothoracic surgery was referred to GMC, Jammu.

According to local villagers in the area, the security personnel were on high alert and conducting random searches since Tuesday after a local resident, Darshana Devi, had informed the police that two men in army fatigues carrying backpacks had asked her for water. The woman said the duo then went back inside the jungle in the area.

Former BDC, Chairperson Brijeshwar Singh Indu, who was camping in the area since morning, told reporters, the terrorists had carved out a safe hideout in the thickly forested area of Juthana with the help of Over Ground Workers and managed to ambush the soldiers patrolling in the area. He demanded stern action against the OGWs. Local reports suggested the police had also busted a module of OGWs in August 2024 after arresting 8 civilians along with Haji Lateef.

Since Sunday evening, a massive search operation involving the police, army, NSG, BSF, and CRPF armed with technical and surveillance equipment and supported by helicopter, UAVs, drones, bulletproof vehicles, and sniffer dogs continued to track down the terrorists, who are believed to have infiltrated on Saturday via either the ravine route or through a newly created tunnel from across the border.

The security forces, led by DGP Police Nalin Prabhat, extended the search operation, particularly the routes leading to the Billawar forest, and were successful in tracking down the terrorists.

The search parties on Monday found four loaded magazines of M4 carbine, two grenades, a bulletproof jacket, sleeping bags, tracksuits, several packets of eatables, and separate polythene bags containing material for making Improvised Explosive Devices near the scene of the encounter in Hiranagar.