3rd terrorist killed in fresh gunfight in Jammu’s Akhnoor sector following attack on army convoy

Jammu: Security forces on Tuesday morning gunned down two terrorists holed up in a forest area near a village in the Akhnoor sector in Jammu and Kashmir, taking the number of militants killed in the 27-hour-long gunfight near the Line of Control (LoC) to three, officials said.

One of the three terrorists who fired at an army ambulance that was part of a convoy moving near the Line of Control (LoC) on Monday morning was killed by the evening in an operation launched by the special forces and NSG commandos.

The other two terrorists were killed on Tuesday in a span of two hours after the joint teams of the army and the police launched the final assault near the Assan temple in Jogwan village in the Battal-Khour area, the officials said.

They said the encounter has ended but the operation is on to retrieve the bodies of the slain terrorists who are believed to have infiltrated from across the border on Sunday night before appearing outside a temple and targeting the army convoy.

“After a night-long lull, the security forces pushed for a final assault against the holed-up terrorists at around 7 am, leading to a fresh gunfight,” an official said.

A couple of deafening explosions followed by an intense firing on Tuesday broke the overnight lull when security forces closed in on the terrorists hiding near the Assan temple in Jogwan village in Khour, the officials said.

A four-year-old valiant Army dog, Phantom, died after being hit by a bullet during the operation.

In a first, the Army has also pressed its four BMP-II infantry combat vehicles for surveillance and strengthening the cordon around the attack site, while helicopters and drones were also deployed to locate the hiding terrorists.