Sources said that contact was established during a combing operation by the Army to track down militants who had held a fierce gun battle with the troops in the forests around the adjoining Dehra Ki Gali area on October 11, that left a JCO and four jawans dead.

Vehicular traffic between Bhimber Gali and Surankote along the Rajouri-Poonch national highway was suspended after security forces made contact with militants.

The encounter on October 11 was the deadliest the area had witnessed in 17 years, the last being in 2004, when four soldiers had been killed.

The operation by the Army troops continued and had spread to adjoining Rajouri district’s Pangai area, with militants, believed to be four to five in number, taking on security forces there. Officials suspect the militants are part of the group that infiltrated across the Line of Control in Poonch in August.

According to officials, the group that had infiltrated across the LoC in August, and was believed to be headed for Shopian, had been intercepted by police and security forces in the Pangai area. Two of the militants were subsequently killed on August 6 and another on August 19.

Last month, police and Army had busted a module of the Jammu and Kashmir Ghaznabi Force in Poonch district and apprehended three people, along with two pistols, four Chinese grenades and 100 pistol rounds.