A member of the Village Defence Guard (VDG), part of security forces combing a forest area to track down terrorists, sacrificed his life during a gunfight with the ultras in a remote village of Basantgarh in the Udhampur district on Sunday.

This marks the third incident of terrorist-related violence in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir since last week. This is the first major terrorist strike in the area after 2018. Till the time of filing the report massive cordon and search operations were mounted in the thickly forested belt to track down the footprints of the group of terrorists.

A joint team of security forces led by elite Para commandos of the Indian Army were rushed to the spot to flush out the hiding group of terrorists, believed to have infiltrated recently from the border belt of Kathua. Senior Army, police and CRPF officers rushed to the spot to synergise anti-terrorist operations.

According to ground reports, aerial surveillance was also mounted to prevent the terrorists from breaching the outer cordon in the area while area domination parties were closing in with utmost care to avoid more collateral damage during the anti-terrorist operation. According to a statement issued by the Jammu and Kashmir police, “J&K Police sprang into action after intel on terrorists near Basantgarh Police station of Udhampur district. The clash erupted as police confronted hiding terrorists. One VDG member was injured”.

The joint operation was still underway with the Army & CRPF.

A police spokesman in Jammu added, “Today morning, a party of police picket Sang carrying along with them VDG members proceeded towards Chochru Gala heights where a face-off ensued with a group of hiding terrorists”.

Official sources in Basantgarh told The Pioneer, “The VDG member had initially received bullet injuries when a police party came face to face with the terrorists. However, the  VDG member later succumbed to his injuries”.

The deceased VDG member has been identified by the Jammu and Kashmir police as Mohd Sharief S/O Abdul Rahman R/O Khaned. He is survived by his family of five daughters and other loved ones. The mortal remains of the VDG member were shifted to PHC, Basantgarh where a team of doctors conducted the postmortem before handing over the dead body to the family for the final rites.

On April 23, the brother of a Territorial army personnel, working in the Social Welfare Department was shot dead in cold blood by ‘unidentified’ terrorists while he was returning home after offering prayers in the village Kunda Top of Thanamandi area in the Rajouri district.

On April 26, two terrorists were neutralised in the North Kashmir district of Baramulla.