Search operations intensify in J&K’s Kathua to track down militants; 6 held for questioning

Security forces intensify search operations in Jammu and Kashmir following suspected militant movement, leading to multiple casualties and arrests.

Security forces have intensified search operations using aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs following a night-long cordon after fresh reports of suspected movement of three individuals, believed to be militants, who escaped a recent encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, officials said.

Two militants and four policemen were killed while three others, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), were injured during a gunfight in a remote forested area in the Sanyal belt of the district on Thursday (March 27, 2025).

Security forces, which have picked up six persons for questioning, have also launched a search operation in Samba sector near the international border to sanitise the area, while the entire border belt has been put on alert, officials said.

On Sunday (March 30, 2025) night, three militants entered a house in Rui village, several kilometres from the encounter site, and took away food from her kitchen, they said.

“Multi-tier combing operations have been intensified following fresh movement of terrorists. After a night-long cordon, a search operation was launched this morning in the Ghati-Juthana forest area,” an officer said.

Aided by aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs, the army, police, National Security Guard (NSG), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) are engaged in a multi-tier operation to track down the militants in the forest belts of Rui, Juthana, Ghati and Sanyal in the Rajbagh region, and parts of Billawar, the officials said.

The joint operation teams are also focusing on the overground and underground networks of the militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad in areas along the International Border (IB), they said.