Operation Trashi-I: After days of pursuit, security forces kill Jaish man in Kishtwar

The three-member Jaish module led by a Pakistani national, Saifullah, has been on the radar of the security forces for more than a year now.

Security officials say that Kishtwar’s rugged topography and hard-to-reach villages make the operation challenging. Commenting on the recent findings inside the fortified high-altitude hideout, a senior police officer said, “It was not the rice or the Maggi packets found inside the hideout that surprised us. What alarmed us was the presence of fresh vegetables. It indicates an elaborate network of sympathisers, supplying them with daily essentials.”

Kishtwar is a vast district marked by rugged, steep terrain, dense forests and deep gorges. Half as large as the Kashmir Valley, it connects with Anantnag district in the Valley on one side and the Doda district of Jammu on the other.

In the northeast, it borders the Zanskar region of Kargil, and on the other side, the Chamb area of Himachal Pradesh. The regions are linked by mountainous routes, cutting through high-altitude dense forests that span nearly 2,000 square kilometres of the district.

“Some of the villages are so far off that it takes two days to reach on foot,” said an Army officer. “These terrorists don’t use cell phones and hence leave no digital footprints. We have to rely on human intelligence. By the time it reaches us and we launch the operation, they often slip out of the area.”

Kishtwar’s history

Of the 10 districts in the Jammu region, Kishtwar was never declared militancy-free and is believed to be home to Jammu and Kashmir’s longest surviving militant, Mohammad Amin alias Jahangir Saroori. Saroori has escaped the security radar for almost three and a half decades, and security officials attribute it to his large network of overground workers (OGWs) and his hideouts in the thick, forested, mountainous caves of Kishtwar.

Police officials say that while there are no concrete inputs that the Saifullah group is in contact with Saroori, access to his vast network of hideouts can’t be ruled out.

Police officials say two groups of Pakistani insurgents – each having three to four members – moved into Kishtwar in the middle of 2024. While three of them were killed after a year’s pursuit in the Chatroo area in April 2025, the other group has dodged the security forces so far.

In January, security forces launched a major offensive on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountains that connect the Kashmir valley to Poonch and Rajouri on one side and Kishtwar and Doda on the other to dislodge the Jaish group. The administration also banned trekking in the mountainous regions connecting the valley with Kishtwar.

On January 18, the joint team of forces established contact with the Jaish group at Sonnar village in Chatroo. A special forces paratrooper was killed and six soldiers were injured in the gunfight, while the Jaish insurgents managed to escape. Over the next 12 days, the security forces continued to chase the terrorist group, establishing contact with them three more times. On January 31, the last time the contact was established in the snow-bound dense forests, three soldiers were injured.

A senior police officer said that since the Pakistani terrorists stay away from the urban populations and mostly in the jungles, there is little information coming out. “In jungle warfare, it is an advantage for the one who is stationary, and that is always the terrorist,” he explained.