3 Pak terrorists involved in Majalta gun battle came to village in search of food

Security forces stepped up search operations at Soan and surrounding villages including entire forest belt for three suspected foreign terrorists involved in last night’s encounter with a team of Special Operations Group (SOG) in which a jawan was martyred and two others were injured. Soan forests are connected to Basantgarh and Ramnagar in Udhampur district where presence of terrorists has been reported earlier also and several encounters have taken place with security forces. The Basantgarh forests are further linked to Doda and Kishtwar districts.

Reports said number of the terrorists who were engaged in gun battle by the security personnel was three and all of them were believed to be the foreign terrorists. One of them was reportedly injured in the encounter in which SOG jawan Amjad Khan, a resident of Salva, Mendhar in Poonch district was martyred while two others were injured.
Army, paramilitary forces, SOG and police have been conducting joint search operations at Soan and surrounding belt. However, there was no fresh contact with the terrorists since last evening. The terrorists, believed to be Pakistanis, have frequently been changing their hideouts in the forests and mountains.
Reports said the terrorists had come down to the village in search of food for which they also visited some houses. Their movement was being observed during past two days and security forces had launched operations to track them down. The SOG jawans who established contacts with the terrorists, was one of the teams searching the terrorists.
A small hideout of the terrorists was also found near the encounter site from where rice, flour, oil bottle, pulses, turmeric. earphone, a sky blue colour suit, sweater, caps and socks were recovered.
“The rugged terrain and thick vegetation in the area are reported to have helped terrorists to escape to surrounding areas after the gun battle,” the reports said.
The terrorists keep on shifting hideouts in the forests of Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar and Kathua, all of which are connected, to avoid contacts with security forces who have launched multiple operations in the mountains and forests in these and other districts.
Meanwhile, body of martyr Amjad Khan was taken to his native village Pathana Teer in Salva in Mendhar tehsil of Poonch district after wreath laying ceremony at Udhampur and was buried with fully honours this evening. Senior officers and prominent persons attended the burial. DIG Rajouri-Poonch range Tejinder Singh, SSP Poonch Shafkat Hussain and Additional SP Poonch Mohan Sharma besides others attended the burial. Wreaths were laid before last rites of the brave soldier.
Local people paid tribute to the martyr who was very popular in his village and surroundings. There was huge rush of people to pay tribute to him during the burial.
Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters at Udhampur, Inspector General of Police, Jammu Zone, Bhim Sen Tuti said that the search operation is on.
“The terrorists escaped towards the forest area after the initial gunfight. It is a dense forest area. There are three terrorists holed up. Operation is underway,” he said.
The IGP said an operation was launched on specific information in Soan village on Monday evening.
“The information turned out to be true and an encounter took place. We had a small Special Operations Group party. During the firefight, Amjad Ali Khan, our policeman, suffered injuries. We tried to evacuate him, but due to excessive blood loss, we lost him,” he said.
A wreath-laying ceremony was held in Udhampur to pay tribute to martyred constable Amjad Ali Khan of the 22nd Battalion of the Indian Reserve Police.
Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat led the solemn ceremony, held at the District Police Lines in Udhampur, to honour the constable.
A gun salute was given as a final farewell to the martyred cop, following which the mortal remains were sent to his hometown in the Mendhar.
Earlier, a police officer said that the operation has been resumed in the area to track down the holed-up terrorists. “The cordon has been further strengthened.”
A joint team of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of police, along with the Army and the CRPF, is on the job with sniffer dogs, the officer added.
Udhampur’s Basantgarh lies on the route traditionally used by Pakistani terrorists to enter from the International Border in Kathua and move to Doda and Kishtwar districts in Jammu, and further into the Kashmir valley.
The area has witnessed several encounters and terror incidents in the past.

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Courtesy: Daily Excelsior -17-Dec-2025