Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Anand Jain has said that there were six to seven groups of terrorists operating in the Jammu region presently. Earlier, there were only four such groups but recent infiltrations have led to a situation where there are more groups in the entire area, he said. Jain was responding to a question as to how many terrorist groups were there in the area.
ADGP Jain was interacting with journalists after the killing of three terrorists in the Gandoh area of Doda after a day-long encounter. The encounter had started on Wednesday morning after security forces were fired upon by a group of terrorists in Sinoo area of Gandoh. By late in the evening on Wednesday, three terrorists were killed by the security forces in a joint operation in which the Army, the CRPF and the local police participated.
After the encounter, the security forces seized arms and ammunition from the site and these included two M4 rifles, one AK 47 rifle, hand grenades and other ammunition. Incidentally, the seizure of M4 rifles points to the terrorists having access to a wide variety of weapons now. In close combat situations, M4 rifle is considered better than AK47 as it has a higher cyclic rate of firing. In full automatic mode, the M4 can fire 700 to 950 rounds per minute while the AK47 can fire only 600 to 650 rounds per minute.
It was on June 12, almost a fortnight ago that terrorists had fired at a police party in another area of Doda and one policeman was injured. A day earlier, on June 11 too, a group of terrorists had fired upon a joint naka of the security forces leading to injuries to six personnel. In both the cases, the terrorists had managed to sneak away though the firing was retaliated and security forces had tried to enforce cordons.
“Since then (after June 12), forces had launched many search operations and today immediately after receiving the information about presence of terrorists in the area, the operation was launched and security forces successfully eliminated three terrorists,” ADGP Jain said.
“We are ascertaining the identity of these terrorists,” he said. Some media outlets have, however, reported that these terrorists could be from Jaish e Mohammad (JeM) group. Jain said the elimination of these terrorists have been great news for people of Gandoh area as this region had remained free from terrorism for the past many years.
The ADGP has sought wider public support and cooperation in identifying those people who provided help to terrorists so that action can be taken against them. There were some people in the area who have been providing shelter and food to groups of terrorists and the public should share such information with the security forces, Jain pointed out.
It was big achievement for security forces and the search operation is continuing in the area after the killing all the three terrorists.
“We are also ascertaining whether it was the same group which was seen in Chattergala area of Bhaderwah or not,” Jain added.
Senior Army officer Brigadier Sunil Mishra, Commander of 9 Sector Rashtriya Rifles (RR) also participated in the interaction with media. He said: “We coordinated well with the Doda police. We reached the targeted point well in time and in such a manner that there was no possibility for the terrorists to break the cordon. The operation was seamless, no possibility of leaving the cordon, no error from any of the party and I can say it was very well coordinated without incurring any kind of casualty.”
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