Militants open fire in village near Rajouri, kill three men

The incident comes four days after four “heavily armed” militants were gunned down by a joint team of J&K Police and security forces near Sidhra bridge at the entry point to Old Jammu city along National Highway 44.

Officials said they were yet to obtain a detailed account of Sunday’s attack, as police and security forces were still at the spot. But police sources told The Indian Express that the attack involved “at least two militants”.

Local residents told The Indian Express over phone that two militants wearing red masks entered a house in the village around 6.45 pm and opened fire before fleeing. “They continued firing at people who were in the houses on their way,” said a resident, who did not wish to be identified.

Residents said the militants had earlier asked the victims to produce their Aadhaar cards.

Following Sunday’s attack, local units of the BJP, VHP and a traders’ association have extended their support for a bandh called for Monday by an outfit named Shri Sanatan Dharam Sabha Rajouri.

Over the past fortnight, police and security forces had been carrying out searches at regular intervals in Rajouri town and its outskirts following inputs about the “suspicious movement of some people”.

On Saturday, the police found an unclaimed bag near the gate of an Army camp — at the spot where two civilians were killed and another injured in firing on December 16. While the Army had said at the time that the two were killed in firing by militants, the family members of the victims had alleged that they were shot by a sentry in a case of mistaken identity.

Following the discovery of the bag Saturday, the police and security forces carried out searches in the area for nearly two-and-a-half hours.

According to officials, militants have started reviving activities in the Jammu division to spread their area of operations and stretch the security forces outside Kashmir Valley.

In 2022, officials said, 146 terror modules, each comprising 4-5 people, were busted. A large amount of weapons was also seized during this period, they said, including 188 AK-series rifles, 275 pistols, eight M4 carbines, 354 grenades, and 61 IEDs and sticky bombs — mostly dropped in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts by drones from Pakistan.

Earlier, in April last year, two Pakistani terrorists were killed days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to a village in Samba district. In another incident ahead of Independence Day last year, militants attacked an Army camp in Rajouri, killing five soldiers.