Srinagar: An army captain was killed and a civilian injured during a counterinsurgency operation in a forest area of Jammu’s Doda district, officials said on Wednesday (August 14).
The army confirmed the killing on the same day as Union defence minister Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi to review the security situation ahead of the Independence Day celebrations.
A senior police officer said that the operation was launched on Tuesday evening following inputs about the presence of a group of heavily armed militants in Doda’s Shivgarh-Assar forest.
The officer said that the operation was put on hold due to low light but it resumed on Wednesday morning and security forces established contact with the perpetrators.
“In the exchange of fire, an army captain of 48 Rashtriya Rifles identified as Deepak Singh suffered serious injuries. He was evacuated from the operation site but succumbed to injuries,” the officer said, adding that the operation was underway to hunt down the militants.
The identity of the civilian was not immediately known. It was also not clear what he was doing at the site when the exchange of firing took place. No militant group has claimed responsibility for the killing so far.
A video purportedly shot near the site of the attack, which circulated on social media, showed a group of army soldiers and village defence guards, dressed in civilian clothing, circling around a large boulder besides which three black bags lay unattended.
According to reports, security forces claimed to have recovered a United States-made M4 assault rifle, three rucksacks filled with equipment and logistics along with other material from the encounter site. One report said that a militant was injured in the firing and security forces are following the blood trail to catch hold of the militants.
The killing of the army captain in Doda is a fresh blow to the efforts of security forces who have been carrying out massive search operations in the higher reaches of Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal region of Jammu province over the last few months following a spurt in attacks on the army.
A majority of these attacks have been claimed by Peoples Anti-Fascist Front and Kashmir Tigers, two relatively unknown militant outfits believed to be affiliated with Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, which have sprung on Kashmir’s conflict landscape following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
According to intelligence assessments, some 30-40 highly trained militants, some of whom are suspected to be former soldiers of the Pakistani army, have taken refuge in the forests of the two regions from where they have been carrying out deadly attacks on civilians and security forces.
Reports said that these militants, who are believed to be carrying armour piercing bullets and night-vision equipment among other sophisticated weaponry, have divided themselves into several groups who slip into the higher reaches of Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal once they have attacked their targets.
Due to the strategic advantage of mountain heights and dense forest cover, these militants have largely managed to escape the clutches of security forces.
Official data shows that at least 51 army soldiers including top officers have been gunned down by these militants in less than three years in Jammu province which was relatively peaceful in the years before the the Union government bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories.
On August 12, a civilian and two army soldiers were killed in a forested area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir, where a group of suspected militants was believed to be trapped. However, the operation was later suspended after security forces lost track of the militants.
An army soldier was killed and at least four more soldiers, including an officer, were injured when suspected militants attacked an Indian Army post along the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on July 27.
