The hiding terrorists fired at the troops in an attempt to break the cordon, resulting in retaliatory fire, reports said.
Credit: PTI Photo
Two soldiers were injured in an ongoing encounter with terrorists in the forest area of Soom-Broh village in the border Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.
Soom-Broh villages are located in the hinterland of Rajouri and fall under the jurisdiction of the Kalakote police station in the district.
The encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists on Monday night following a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in a forest area of the district, police said. A joint team of the army and police had cordoned off the forest belts following information about the suspicious movement.
The hiding terrorists fired at the troops in an attempt to break the cordon, resulting in retaliatory fire, reports said. Fierce gunfight continued in the area on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday in which two army personnel received injuries.
The injured soldiers were evacuated to an army hospital in Rajouri, where their condition is stated to be stable.
The encounter in the area was going on when the last reports were received. Two terrorists are believed to be inside the cordoned area, sources said, and added it may take some time to flush out them as the ultras are hiding in a forest area.
Terrorists trained in the jungle and high-altitude warfare have emerged as a new security challenge in pockets of the Union Territory, including the Rajouri-Poonch districts of the Jammu region in the last two years.
In the woods of Rajouri-Poonch, at least 26 army personnel, including three officers and five paratroopers, have lost their lives since October 2021 in dealing with battle-hardened terrorists with sophisticated weapons.