3 detained for questioning as security forces expand search for militants in J&K’s Kathua

While police did not disclose the identity of those taken into custody, sources said they had a history of helping militants and that they had been picked up for questioning in 2024, too.

The search parties on Tuesday recovered two grenades and some M4 ammunition from the forests. On Monday, they had found several magazines of M4 carbine and a bulletproof jacket among other material believed to have been left behind by the absconding militants.

Para commandos, unmanned aerial vehicles and sniffer dogs also formed part of the massive search operation to track down the militants suspected of having crossed the border.

J&K’s Director General of Police, Nalin Prabhat, was at the spot, monitoring the combing and search operation since Sunday evening. While he had himself joined the searches, holding an AK47 rifle, in the forests on Monday, on Tuesday, he deployed his bodyguards too for searches in the area.

As police and security forces fanned out in different directions, expanding the area of their searches, reports about the sighting of two suspicious-looking people at Dinga Amb, towards the Billawar side, were received. Subsequently, a search operation was launched there as well, sources said.

The International Border along Kathua district has of late emerged as a major infiltration route for militants from Pakistan seeking to proceed to the higher reaches of the Kailash tri-junction, which falls between Udhampur, Doda and Kishtwar districts.

Last year, five soldiers were killed after militants attacked an Army convoy near Badnota village in Kathua district.

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