Security forces on Monday launched a massive hunt for terrorists after a resident of Rui village in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir informed the police that three suspects barged into his house late evening on Sunday and asked for food.

The armed suspects escaped towards the nearby jungle after consuming the food. However, they forcibly took with them a 13-year-old child who somehow managed to escape from their clutches.

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The village is in the Juthana area where a brief encounter between the security forces and terrorists was reported on Sunday. The terrorists managed to escape and were reportedly detected moving in the village late in the evening.

A joint team of the Army, CRPF and J-K Police has launched a cordon and search operation in the Juthana village and areas around. House to house search was being conducted and some over ground workers of various terror outfits have been rounded up for questioning, reports said.

Two Pakistani terrorists and four policemen were killed, and three others, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured in a fierce gunfight in a remote forested area of the Saniyal belt of Kathua district on Thursday.

Security forces have received fresh inputs about the movement of three persons, suspected to be escaped terrorists, in the Juthana area of the Rajbagh belt and immediately put the area under cordon to conduct searches.