The recovery of bullet-riddled dead bodies of two Special Police Officers (SPOs) attached to the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police from inside the dense forested area of Dachan in Kishtwar district has stunned senior security officials in Jammu and Kashmir.
The service weapons of both the SPOs were found missing from the scene, raising strong suspicions of a terror attack aimed at snatching arms. The two SPOs were reportedly carrying an INSAS rifle and a .303 rifle along with large quantities of ammunition.
It is the first time that security forces have suffered collateral damage in the remote Kishtwar district after the successful elimination of a seven-member terror module led by a dreaded commander of the proscribed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit, Saifullah, in February 2026.
Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat visited Kishtwar on Thursday with senior police officers to assess the prevailing security situation and ongoing anti-terrorist operations in the area.
The incident came to light hours after heavily armed terrorists, wearing pherans, targeted a check post manned by the jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the South Kashmir district of Kulgam on Wednesday. Three jawans received bullet injuries and were shifted to Srinagar-based 92 Base Hospital for advanced treatment.
The two SPOs, identified as 45-year-old Rashpal Kumar and 57-year-old Babbi Chand, went missing on Wednesday while trekking on foot from their Kiyar camp towards an Army Temporary Operating Base (TOB) of the 17 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) at Deherna/Basnan in the Marwah/Inderwal sector.
They had been detailed for rotation duty to relieve personnel manning the post for area domination. Both were residents of Kiyar village in Dachhan and were posted with SOG Kiyar Sector, Dachhan.
Preliminary reports claimed that some of the locals in the area heard gunshots in the forested stretch between Kiyar and Deherna around the time of their disappearance.
When the duo failed to report at the TOB, local police teams launched joint searches with the army and CRPF personnel to trace them.
Initially, the mobile phones of both the SPOs were operating but could not be reached after they went off the radar on Wednesday evening.
Official sources confirmed that their bodies, bearing multiple bullet injuries, were recovered early Thursday morning from the dense forests of Dachhan, a few kilometres away from where they were last seen.
Security forces have intensified large-scale cordon-and-search operations across the forested upper reaches of Dachhan, deploying drones, sniffer dogs, and specialised teams to track the assailants and recover the missing weapons.