J&K encounter: One Pakistani militant captured alive, another killed in gun battle

Terrorists wearing army fatigue on Wednesday morning attacked a BSF convoy at Narsu nullah near Samroli, killing two Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and injuring ten others.

While one terrorist was killed as BSF immediately retaliated, two managed to flee into the forests on hillocks running along the national highway. Three civilians, who were held hostage by one Pakistani terrorist, have been rescued by the army and the terrorist was caught alive.

Sources said, the convoy was on its way from Jammu to Srinagar, adding that the encounter was in progress with BSF, army and police cordoning off the area. Sources said that the terrorists opened fire on the convoy from a hillock along the highway and hurled grenades, taking everybody by surprise.

One of the terrorists, sources said, even tried to force entry into the bus carrying BSF jawans, but an alert CRPF jawan Suresh Kumar of 137 Bn, part of a patrol party on the road, gunned him down.

The terror attack, which came nine days after a similar strike at Dinanagar police station in Punjab, is not new to the national highway in the Jammu region. Terrorists had previously carried out back-to-back attacks on Rajbagh police station in Kathua and an army camp in adjoining Samba district in March 2014. But this attack is unusual as it has occured in an otherwise peaceful Udhampur district after four years. Last time, terrorists had blown up the vehicle of a top army officer belonging to the Northern Command near Birma Pul in Udhampur in May 2011.

Meanwhile, all vehicles including Amarnath yatra were stopped on the national highway as news about the terrorist attack came in. Sources said that all the pilgrims were safe.

More reinforcements have been rushed to the area to flush out terrorists, two of whom are reportedly hiding in the forests on hillocks along the highway.

Meanwhile, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah described the attack as a worrisome development saying that it has come after a “very long time” in an area which has been “militant free”.