Officials said that an encounter broke out in the valley when the joint teams of forces launched a search operation in the area.

“As the search party proceeded towards the suspected spot, the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon them, which was retaliated leading to an encounter. The intermittent firing is now going on in the area,” officials said.

Tuesday’s gunfight is the fifth back-to-back gunfight in Kashmir, in areas of Bandipora, Kupwara and Sopore in addition to the one in Kishtwar district of Jammu region where one JCO of the army’s 2 Para was martyred and three other soldiers injured.

The massive search operation started in Kishtwar district entered its sixth day on Tuesday. The search operation was started when two village defence committee (VDC) members, Kuldeep Kumar and Nazir Ahmad were abducted from village Ohli and then brutally shot dead in the forest area of Keshwan in Kishtwar district.

The VDCs are groups of local villagers who are provided with weapons by the police in far-flung areas of Jammu division to protect themselves and their families from terrorists.

In order to strengthen the VDCs, J&K police is equipping them with automatic weapons and better training for self-defence. The terrorists have been viewing the civilians of the VDCs as their potential enemies since the civilian population in the far-flung areas of Jammu division has cordial relations with the army and the security forces.

In times of natural calamities or medical emergencies, the army and the security forces always lend a much-needed helping hand to the civilian population.

The attacks on unarmed civilians in Kathua, Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur districts in the past six months are seen as the result of increasing frustrations among the terror handlers across the border.