The fifteen-hour-long encounter in the Saida Sukhal village near Kootah Morh in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir ended with the elimination of the second terrorist. It was all due to the alertness of the local villagers that a major tragedy occurred.
Although a trooper of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) lost his life in the line of duty, vigilant locals foiled the nefarious designs of the terrorists to take some villagers hostage.
An audio has gone viral on social media in which a villager was informing police about the presence of two terrorists on the premises of his house. While locking himself inside a room along with his kids, the villager sounded alert by informing Panchayat members and local police that two terrorists were sitting on a cot on the premises of his house.
According to eyewitnesses, two terrorists in Army uniform asked for water from a woman who got suspicious as both of them were carrying rifles on their shoulders.
Without wasting any time, the alert woman rushed toward her house and raised an alarm. In the meantime, terrorists resorted to indiscriminate firing.
After hearing the sound of the firing, the members of the house ran inside the rooms and the people around also locked themselves in their homes. Before people locked themselves in their homes, one Onkar was injured in the firing of terrorists.
Eyewitness of the terrorist attack Ashwani Kumar Sharma told media persons that some youths of the village had seen the terrorists. Ashwani was also in the village street and then two armed men came from the front and asked for water while talking in Hindi.
Ashwani said that he understood that they were terrorists after seeing the AK 47 in their hands and shouting among the children playing on the ground at some distance when the terrorists entered the village.
After this, everyone ran to their homes, and then the terrorists started firing from the village street itself and Omkar was injured.
By then, everyone had hidden inside their homes. After this, the police were informed and after some time, the encounter started.
There was an atmosphere of terror in Saida Sohal and dozens of surrounding villages. As soon as the incident of terrorist firing came to light at 8 pm, there was silence in many areas. Shops were closed from Koota Bazaar to Koota Morh. People of Saida Sohal who had shops in other areas also returned home early.
Second terrorists killed; search and combing operation going on
Although security forces have eliminated the second terrorist involved in the Hiranagar attack, a search and combing operation was going on in the area.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Jammu zone, Anand Jain, told the media that both the terrorists, spotted by villagers on Tuesday evening, have been eliminated in the encounter. He said that one trooper of the CRPF attained martyrdom in the gun battle.
The ADGP confirmed that the killed terrorists were part of a group of fresh infiltrators, who managed to sneak from the International Border.
According to police, one CRPF personnel, namely CT/GD Kabir Dass No.115062756, of 121 Bn CRPF, son of Shiv Charan, who suffered bullet injuries last night at village Saida Sukhal, Kootah Morh, later succumbed to his injuries during treatment at SDH Hiranagar.
