The bodies of two soldiers were recovered, as the Army continued its Jammu and Kashmir ops into the sixth day. The Army stated, according to NDTV: "Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh were killed in action during search operations being conducted by the Indian Army along with Jammu and Kashmir Police in densely forested area of Nar Khas forest in Mendhar, Poonch." The Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and the soldier went missing after they came under heavy firing from the terrorists on Thursday.
Massive search ops are underway in the forest areas of Jammu and Kashmir's twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, to track down terrorists involved in the killing of seven Army soldiers. According to multiple reports, gunshots were heard as the joint search parties of the Army and the police embarked on the operation in Poonch's Mendhar area. However, it was not immediately clear whether it was speculative firing by the search parties, or fresh contact was established with the terrorists.
The area is mountainous and the forest is dense, which makes the operation difficult and dangerous. A vast forest area of Mendhar has been under tight security cordon since Thursday, when riflemen Vikram Singh Negi and Yogambar Singh, both from Uttarakhand, were killed in an encounter with terrorists in the Nar Khas forest. There was an exchange of fire between the Army search parties and the fleeing terrorists in the adjoining Thanamandi forest in Rajouri the same day.
The officials said that the entire forest area from Mendhar to Thanamandi remains under a strict cordon and a massive search operation is on to neutralise the terrorists who are moving from one place to another in an attempt to escape the dragnet. The traffic between Mendhar and Thanamandi along the Jammu-Rajouri highway remained suspended for the second day in view of the ongoing operation.
