Drones, explosives & more: Inside J&K's Kokernag encounter as it enters Day 4

With terrorists camped out in a cave atop a hill, the encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag area has now entered its fourth day. The gunfight started during a joint Army-police operation Tuesday night to find the terrorists hiding in the Gadul forest near Kokernag. When they attempted to approach the Lashkar terrorists’ stronghold on a hill, one soldier, who went missing, was found dead and three officers were killed in the line of duty. Let’s take a closer look. Also read: What we know about army officers, policeman killed in J&K encounter The encounter The operation was conducted in response to a tip that there were two to three terrorists in the vicinity who had been seen and were being surrounded in Gadul. The terrorists were not found despite a search operation. Then, the joint team of Army and police personnel learned that the terrorists were hiding atop a hill. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Additional Director General of Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar advised retired police and Army officers to avoid going with the “ambush hypothesis.” “Retired police/Army officers should avoid “ambush hypothesis.” It is a specific input-based ops. Ops is in progress and all two to three trapped terrorists will be neutralised,” he said.

Despite the rain, the security forces cordoned off the area and began an operation to flush out the terrorists, according to Kashmir Observer. The official reported that residents residing near the region of the encounter have already been relocated to safer locations. The decision to attack the terrorists was made in the wee hours of Wednesday. According to reliable sources who spoke on condition of anonymity to NDTV, the terrorists, who are familiar with the surrounding terrain, are camped out in a cave on top of a hill that can only be reached by a narrow path with a deep ditch on one side. The officers had attempted to enter the cave on Wednesday via this path, but they were met with gunfire and had nowhere to hide. Colonel Manpreet Singh, Major Aashish Dhonchak, and Deputy Superintendent of Police Himanyun Bhat had all died as a result of the path. “The path the forces have to take to get to the top of the hill is quite challenging. It is very narrow and there mountains and a dense forest on one side and a deep ditch on the other. The personnel began the ascent in the night, and the pitch darkness made it worse,” the New Delhi-based news channel quoted its source as saying. The terrorists were able to see the advancing forces clearly as they came close to the cave and started firing randomly. The personnel were trapped on the narrow path without any protection, no place to escape and a major risk of falling. They also lacked any means of retaliation. The army now has the hill completely surrounded after the fight had been going on for about 72 hours. In order to find the terrorists who are hidden, they are using advanced weapons and equipment, such as rocket launchers, the Israeli-purchased Heron drone with striking capability, and quadcopters. However, NDTV sources claimed that the difficult terrain still prevented Army dominance. Also read: Second terrorist killed during encounter in J&K’s Rajouri “No ordinary terrorists” According to the report, there are likely more than two or three terrorists, and they are well-trained and have access to plenty of food and ammunition. Uzair Khan, a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba since last year, is one of them. According to the officials, he is an expert on the region, which the terrorists are using to their advantage. “Ordinary terrorists cannot stretch an encounter for so long. They are very well-trained and have good weapons. It is also possible that an informer may have double-crossed the forces or someone may have leaked their movements. Whatever it is, ending this operation has become a big challenge,” NDTV’s source sad. An officer told Kashmir Observer that considering the challenging terrain and dense jungle, it is not known if any terrorists have been killed to date. To prevent terrorists from escaping in the darkness, high-beam lights have been placed, and the perimeter has been further cordoned off. The Bravehearts On Wednesday, three officers — two Army and one police — were killed in the line of duty. The 19 Rashtriya Rifles Unit (19 RR) was commanded by Colonel Manpreet Singh, Sena Medal (Gallantry), with Major Aashish Dhonchak, Sena Medal (Gallantry), serving as company commander. In the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Himanyun Muzamil Bhat held the position of Deputy Superintendent (DySP). They were only able to be taken to a hospital in the morning due to the difficult terrain and hail of bullets that made it hard for other workers or a helicopter to remove them. Yesterday, Colonel Singh’s remains arrived in his hometown of Punjab, where a large crowd had gathered to honour the hero by attending his funeral. Media sources state that one more soldier has died and at least two more have been injured. “One more soldier has lost his life in the Anantnag operations, he had been reported missing since yesterday. During joint security operations against terrorists in Anantnag area, forces dropped grenades on suspected terrorist hideout locations using drone,” security officials told the Times of India. Also read: 4 years of Article 370 abrogation: Has security situation improved in J&K? More about the encounter In contrast to the other three districts of South Kashmir, Anantnag has been fairly peaceful, with only one or two local terrorists — including Uzair Khan of the Nagam area of Kokernag — reported to be active there. According to Kashmir Observer, the Kokernag encounter is the largest in South Kashmir since 5 August this year, when three soldiers from the army’s 34 RR were killed in the Halan Manzgam forest region of the Kulgam district. At Handwara in north Kashmir, on 30 March 2020, an 18-hour-long encounter resulted in the deaths of five security officers, among them a Colonel, a Major, and a sub-inspector. In May contact was made with terrorists in the Sagam area of Kokernag, they later managed to elude forces, making this the first confrontation in the district in roughly the last four months. In J&K, 48 militants have been killed so far this year, of which 10 were locals and 38 were foreigners. In this year’s terrorist assaults and clashes, officials told the outlet that about 20 security personnel were killed. With inputs from agencies