Srinagar: terrorists on Saturday opened fire at an army patrol in Jammu and Kashmir’s Tral region, following which security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to nab the terrorists.
According to a senior police official, terrorists hiding in the Seer Jagir village in Tral opened fire at the army patrol. “Though no one was injured, the army in a swift move launched a massive search operation to nab the terrorists whose number is believed to be three to four,” said the police official.
He said that the security forces were carrying out a census in the area when the firing incident occurred.
It may be mentioned here that Tral is part of Pulwama district which along with Shopian, Kulgam and Anantnag districts of south Kashmir are believed to be heavily infested with terrorists who take refuge in the event of a search operation in the thick vegetation in and around the area.
Confirming that the vegetation in and around the villages of Pulwama district was proving to be of some help to the terrorists active in the area to hide in, a senior defence official said that it was only matter of time before all such elements were neutralised. “We are going slow to simply minimise collateral damage to the locals in the event of an operation against the terrorists,” said an official adding that locals coming in way of such operation to help the terrorists escape would certainly run the risk of getting eliminated in the cross-fire.
The latest incident of firing occurred days after a Kashmiri army officer was killed by terrorists in Shopian when he was on leave to attend a family wedding.