Jammu: Three to four foreign militants are holed up in a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district and an operation is underway to neutralise them, Additional Director General of Police, Jammu zone, Anand Jain said on Sunday.
He said adequate security arrangements are in place in the poll-bound district to ensure ‘violence-free’ voting in the third and final phase of assembly polls on October 1.
A policeman was killed, and two officers injured on Saturday evening when militants opened fire on a joint security search party at Kog-Mandli village in Billawar tehsil.
Talking to reporters near the scene of the encounter, Jain said information was received about the presence of militants in the area and subsequently an operation was launched, leading to an exchange of fire.
Head constable Bashir Ahmad laid down his life and two officers — a DSP and an Assistant Sub-Inspector were injured in the encounter, he said, adding both the officers are stable.
The whole area is under tight security cordon and an operation is underway to neutralise the three to four foreign militants hiding in the area, he said.
Asked whether any militants were also killed in the encounter, he said there is no confirmation about the killing of any militant so far. “It will take some more time to get the real picture.”
He said the presence of militants was reported in a house and subsequently an operation was launched which is underway.
Asked about the interception of the militant group ahead of the third phase of polls, the police officer said the operations against militants are going on and will continue.
“We are getting continuous information about militants and subsequently conducting operations with an endeavour to neutralise them as soon as possible,” he said.
He said adequate security arrangements have been put in place in all poll-bound areas to ensure that there is no terror related incident and violence-free third phase.
Besides Kathua, the third phase is covering Jammu, Udhampur and Samba districts in Jammu region and north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora districts.