To ensure the peaceful conduct of the nine-day-long Navratri festival, elaborate security arrangements have been made across the Jammu region, especially in Katra town, the base camp of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.
In Jammu, the elite commandos of the National Security Guards (NSG) conducted a fresh security audit of the famous Raghunath Mandir in the walled city area of Jammu, ahead of the Navratri celebrations.
At the same time, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of White Knight Corps Lt Gen PK Mishra on Monday reviewed the ongoing anti-terror operations in the hilly areas of Udhampur, Doda, and Kishtwar districts following recent encounters with terrorists.
While a massive search operation is still underway in Seoj Dhar forest connecting Dudu-Basantgarh in Udhampur district with Bhaderwah in Doda district since Friday evening, following the killing of a soldier in a gunfight with terrorists, another operation was launched in Keshwan forest of Kishtwar district after a brief encounter on Sunday afternoon, the officials said.
Accompanied by GOC, counter-insurgency force (Delta) Maj Gen APS Bal, the corps commander flew in a helicopter to Seoj Dhar to review the ongoing operations this morning, the officials said. They said though there was no contact with the terrorists after the initial gunfights in Seoj Dhar and Keshwan forests, helicopters were seen hovering over the dense forests which remained besieged with joint parties of army, police and CRPF on the ground carrying out the combing operation.
Drones and sniffer dogs were also deployed in the area to help track down and neutralise the terrorists, the officials said.
Meanwhile, security forces also launched a cordon and search operation in the Malhar area of Kathua district after getting information about the suspected movement of two terrorists.
The operation is going on, but there has been no trace of the suspected persons so far, the officials said.