Terror: Army calls off Poonch operation after eight days

Photos courtesy BSFPress Trust Of India
Poonch, January 09, 2009

The security forces late on Thursday night called off its operation against militants who were holed up in caves inside a dense jungle of Jammu and Kashmir's Bhati Dhar near the LoC for eight days and said the ultras may have slipped out.

"The operation has been called off. The possibility of militants having escaped cannot be ruled out", said Defence Spokesman S N Acharya capping the futile search for the militants whom the security forces had engaged in a battle.

The encounter, which has been going on since January 1, has claimed the lives of four militants and three security personnel including a Junior Commissioned Officer.

Army calls off Poonch operation after eight days

Tailpiece:
Intercepts available with the security forces suggested that there were about ten militants, some of them top commanders of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. One wonders if they are the same outfit who carried out the Mumbai Mayhem? Certainly we ought to be trained to outsmart the Terror Outfits by superior tactics and technology!