JAMMU, Sept 28: A police Head Constable attained martyrdom while as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) and an Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) of the Police sustained injuries in an ongoing encounter with the terrorists in Kathua’s Billawar area.While the deceased Head Constable has been identified as Bashir Ahmed, the injured DySP (Operations) and ASI have been identified as Sukhbir Singh and Niaz Ahmed respectively.
The injured have been shifted to the hospital, where their condition is stated to be stable.
Reportedly, the encounter broke out in Kog (Mandli) area, some 15 kilometres from the Sub District Headquarters Billawar in the upper reaches towards Machhedi area, at 5: 30 pm after a joint search party of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army launched a cordon and search operation based on specific inputs about the presence of terrorists in a house in the forested area.
As the search party approached the hiding terrorists, who are believed to be 2-3 in number, they reportedly opened fire on the security forces, resulting in an encounter.
“In the exchange of fire, a Head Constable of the Police attained martyrdom and a DySP (Operations) and an ASI suffered injuries,” police sources said.
They said there was a brief lull after the initial firing and the exchange between the two sides intensified after the fall of the dusk with hiding terrorists making desperate attempts to break the cordon by taking advantage of darkness.
The area has been illuminated and modern gadgets including drones were deployed to keep a close watch, they said.
The intermittent exchange of firing was going on when last reports were received.
Pertinently, Kathua district is going to polls along with other districts on October 1 in the last phase of the Assembly elections.
