An army officer was killed in action, and three soldiers were injured in a gunfight with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district on Saturday. The encounter took place during a joint counter-terrorism operation conducted by the Indian Army and local police in the Bhart Ridge area.
Naib Subedar Rakesh Kumar, a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) with the 2 Para (Special Forces), lost his life during the operation. The Indian Army’s 16 Corps confirmed the news on X (formerly Twitter), paying tribute to the fallen soldier.
The operation in Kishtwar is part of an intensified counter-insurgency response following the recent killings of two village defense guards (VDGs). The search efforts heightened after the bodies of VDG members Nazir Ahmad and Kuldeep Kumar were discovered earlier in the week, showing evidence of execution.
The encounter began around 11 a.m. on Saturday when joint search teams from the army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police intercepted a group of terrorists hiding in dense forest, a few kilometers from where the VDGs had been killed. During the ensuing firefight, three soldiers were also injured.
A large-scale search has been ongoing since Thursday evening in the forests of Kuntwara and Keshwan, where the terrorists are believed to be hiding. Authorities are determined to locate those responsible for the attack on the VDGs and other recent acts of terror in the area.
This attack marks a serious escalation in the region’s security situation, with Indian forces stepping up efforts to dismantle terrorist networks operating there.
