Rajouri: Indian Army on Friday said that several modern equipment besides Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and night enabled cameras were used by security forces to keep the area under surveillance during a recent encounter at Baaji Maal near Kote Kabu, Barevi village of Rajouri district.

Brig Soumeet Patnaik, Commander 14 Sector Rashtriya Rifles, in a joint press conference of army, police and CRPF at Kalakote army battalion headquarters, said that a close synergy of security forces foiled an attempt by terrorists to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the region.

Commanding Officer of battalion, Deputy SP Operation Rajouri and other officers were also present in the presser.

Brigadier Patnaik said that relentless joint operations by Indian army, police and paramilitary forces foiled this another attempt to disrupt peace in the Rajouri district.

Naming the operation as Operation Solki, he said that several modern equipment besides UAVs were used by security forces to keep the area under surveillance during the encounter especially during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.

He added that during the last few days, there were continuous inputs of movement of two terrorists in the general area of Kalakot and all the intelligence agencies were working relentlessly to eliminate them.

“In the night of November 19 and 20, 2023, a confirmed input of a high ranked terrorist leader of LeT namely ‘Quari’, who was active in Rajouri- Poonch area, along with one more accomplice was received. Immediately coordinated joint operations by Indian Army, JKP and intelligence agencies were launched in the area generally categorised as Kabu Kote,” he said.

On November 22, at around 8.30 am, he said, input of these two terrorists was again received in the general area following which forces commenced searching the dense forest where likely presence of terrorists was expected which had some residents too staying in dhoks nearby.

“The place our team was searching the jungle, where some civilians were also in close vicinity, the terrorists opened fire,” officer said, adding that sensing danger to the lives of innocent women and children, an officer Captain Pranjal came out of his cover and pinned down the terrorists, thus averting imminent danger to the civilians.

While saving the life of the residents, the officer was hit by a stray volley of fire and made the supreme sacrifice, Brigadier said.

The army Sector Commander further said that the terrorists taking advantage of the thick undergrowth, large boulders and inhospitable terrain attempted to break contact resulting in intense firefight between the terrorists and army troops.

“Our troops continuously maintained contact with the terrorists pinning them down. The fire fight continued through the day wherein our troops while attempting to look close in with the holed terrorist, sustained casualties, three of which were fatal,” he said.

Heavy fire continued to be brought down on the terrorists, one of whom was likely to be hit, he said.

With approaching darkness, more operational teams were built up to cordon the entire area and all the escape routes were blocked, he informed.

Search operations re-commenced on November 23 morning wherein search of contact site led to recovery of body of one terrorist who had been eliminated on day one of encounter while further operations to neutralize the second terrorist, who was attempting to break the cordon led to resumption of fire fight at 7.40 am in the morning, he said.

In the ensuing operations another soldier sustained fatal gunshot injury and finally, by around 1.50 pm, the second terrorist was also eliminated, the army officer said.

Both these terrorists were foreign terrorists of which Quari was one of the most wanted terrorists, having been trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“An IED expert and trained Sniper, Quari was the mastermind of civilian killings at Dhangri in January this year and the attack on security forces in Kandi,” the officer further said.

“A large amount of weapon, ammunition, war like stores have been recovered from these terrorists and it is estimated that they were planning to initiate terror related activities to bring fear in the civilian population and cause unrest in the area,” he added.