Jammu, 29 Sept

A terrorist was killed in an ongoing operation in a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district on Sunday, taking the death toll in the incident to two, officials said.

The body of the terrorist was recovered from the scene of the encounter at Kog-Mandli in Billawar tehsil this afternoon, the officials said. A massive search operation is underway in the village for the second day.

Additional Director General of Police, Jammu zone, Anand Jain said the search operation was launched in the village on Saturday following information about the presence of three to four foreign terrorists.

A policeman was killed and two officers injured Saturday evening when terrorists opened fire on a joint security search party in the village.

Talking to reporters near the scene of the encounter, Jain said an information was received about the presence of terrorists 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 terrorists hiding in the area, he said. He said the presence of terrorists was reported in a house and subsequently an operation was launched which is underway.

Asked about the interception of the terrorist group ahead of the third phase of polls on 1 October, the police officer said the operations against terrorists are going on and will continue.

“We are getting continuous information about terrorists 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 covers Jammu, Udhampur and Samba districts in Jammu region and north Kashmir’s Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora districts.