The terrorists knocked on the doors of a house, seeking water and as a result, the occupants got frightened and informed the police.
Kathua: In a shocking accident on Wednesday, a CRPF soldier lost his life during an operation in which two terrorists holed up in a border village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district were killed by security forces. The operation lasted more than 15 hours, during which another CRPF jawan was also shot dead, officials said. However, the terror attack could have caused massive civilian casualties if the terrorists had not asked the villagers for water.
How A Simple Water Request Averted Kathua Tragedy
Additional Director General of Police (Jammu Zone), Anand Jain, revealed that the two terrorists had entered the village at 8 PM on Tuesday. The terrorists knocked on the doors of a house, seeking water. The occupants got frightened and informed the police. After seeing the police, one of the terrorists tried to throw a grenade at the team but was instantly killed.
“They asked for water from a few houses, to which the villagers grew suspicious and slammed the doors on them and a few raised their voices and cried. The terrorists panicked and fired randomly in the air and also at one odd villager who was passing by,” a senior official said in a statement, as per a report by news agency Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, a villager claimed his quick thinking and action averted a potential tragedy.
According to them, two senior officers escaped unhurt even as their vehicles were hit by bullets during the operation that began on Tuesday night after two terrorists were spotted in Saida Sukhal village.
In Doda district, five troopers of Rashtriya Rifles and a special police officer (SPO) were injured when terrorists attacked a joint checkpost in the upper reaches of Chattergalla on the Bhaderwah-Pathankot road late on Tuesday night. Traffic on the highway has been suspended as an operation is underway to track down the terrorists.
The two incidents come just days after terrorists attacked a bus carrying pilgrims from the Shiv Khori temple to Katra, causing it to veer off the road and fall into a deep gorge. Nine people died and 41 were injured in the Sunday evening attack.
Police Announces Bounty
Police have announced a Rs 20 lakh reward for information on the whereabouts of the terrorists involved in the attack on the bus and have also released a sketch of one of the terrorists. Authorities have claimed that attempts by Pakistan to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir were the reason for the spurt in terror activities in the Jammu region.
In Kathua’s Saida Sukhal village near the International Border, around 60 kms from here, the second holed-up terrorist was killed on Wednesday noon in an intense gunfight after being cornered by the joint security parties of the police, Army and CRPF, officials said.
The terrorist tried to break the cordon by firing indiscriminately at the security forces around 3 am. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan Kabir Dass, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, was critically injured in the firing and later succumbed to injuries in a hospital, they said.
During the operation, official vehicles of Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jammu-Samba-Kathua Range, Sunil Gupta and Senior Superintendent of Police, Kathua, Anayat Ali Choudhary, were hit by several bullets, but the officers escaped unhurt.
Speaking to reporters after the encounter ended, Additional Director General of Police (Jammu Zone) Anand Jain, who supervised the operation, said both the terrorists and a large quantity of weapons, improvised explosive devices and grenades recovered from them.
(With inputs from agencies)