An arrested Pakistani terrorist was killed and three security personnel were injured on Sunday when militants opened fire on a joint search party of the Army and the police inside a forest in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

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Heavy firing and explosions were reported from the Bhatta Durrian forest of Mendhar, where, along with the forest areas adjoining Surankote (Poonch) and Thanamandi in Rajouri district, a massive search operation is on.

The operation, in which nine Army personnel were killed in ambushes in Surankote and Mendhar on October 11 and 14, entered the 14th day on Sunday.

A police spokesperson said two policemen and an Army jawan along with a prisoner Zia Mustafa, a Pakistani terrorist affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), were injured in firing by terrorists in the Bhatta Durrian forest.

“Detenue Mustafa was taken to the area for identification of terrorist hideout during the ongoing operation in which three Army jawans and a JCO were martyred (on October 14). During the search when the team approached the hideout, terrorists again opened fire on the joint team of police and Army personnel in which two policemen and an Army jawan sustained injuries,” the spokesperson said. The police said Mustafa sustained injuries and he could not be taken out from the site in the heavy firing.

Body retrieved

“During the subsequent operation, reinforcements were sent and the body of Mustafa has been retrieved from the encounter site,” the spokesperson said, adding that legal process has been initiated in connection with the killing of the Pakistani terrorist.

Officials said Mustafa, a resident of Rawalakot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, had been lodged in the Kot Bhalwal jail for the past 14 years and was shifted to Mendhar on police remand after investigation revealed his link with the hiding terrorists. He had sneaked in from the same route before he was arrested from south Kashmir, the officials said. The operation in the two border districts started on October 11 when terrorists ambushed a search party killing five soldiers including a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Surankote forest before another gunfight in nearby Thanamandi the same day.