RAJOURI: Officials said that during an encounter between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district on Wednesday, four Army personnel—including two captains—were martyred and two others were injured. They said that additional troops were being called in to put an end to the intense gunfight in the area in order to neutralise two terrorists who were holed up there. Two captains, a havildar, and a jawan, according to officials, died in the fight. They said that two jawans, one of whom was a major, were hurt in the encounter. They added that the injured have been taken to the Army’s Command Hospital in Udhampur.After a cordon-and-search operation, the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army forces, along with terrorists, engaged in combat in the Bajimaal area of Dharmsal, according to the police. The White Knight Corps of the Army stated in a post on X that joint operations were started on Sunday in the Kalakote area of the Gulabgarh forest in Rajouri based on particular intelligence. “On November 22, contact was made, and a fierce firefight started. The statement read, “#Whiteknightcorps salutes the supreme sacrifice. The terrorists have been injured and surrounded, and operations are underway amid acts of valour and sacrifice by own bravehearts in trying to prevent collateral damage to women and children in the highest traditions of Indian Army.”According to officials, more troops have been incorporated into the operation, which has intensified. According to locals, there has been a search and cordon in place since Sunday in an effort to find terrorists that may be operating there. “We were asked to stay inside and not go outside due to the operation. Our kids didn’t go to school; they stayed home,” a villager told PTI. According to him, the firing is occurring in the nearby forest area. The two terrorists imprisoned at the encounter site in Bajimaal, according to officials, appeared to be foreign nationals and had been roving the area since Sunday. They claimed to have even sought sanctuary at a house of worship. The most recent confrontation in Rajouri occurs shortly after another gunfight on November 17 in the Behrote neighbourhood of Budhal, where one terrorist was slain. Ten soldiers had been killed in two previous ambushes in the Mendhar area of Poonch and the Kandi forest of Rajouri on April 20 and May 5, respectively. Since January of this year, 46 deaths have been reported in incidents related to terrorism in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, as well as the neighbouring district of Reasi, according to officials. In Rajouri, 23 people were killed, including seven terrorists, and nine security personnel were martyred; in Poonch district, 15 terrorists were killed, and five security personnel were martyred. In the Reasi district, three terrorists were slain.
