Two heavily armed Pakistani terrorists (fidayeens) on suicide attack mission and an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were killed in a pre-dawn encounter here on Friday two days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit.

The terrorists belonged to the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit. Nine other security forces personnel were injured during the encounter near the strategic Military Station in the Sunjwan locality that has witnessed two major terrorist attacks in the past few years.

The killed CISF ASI has been identified as SP Patel who was critically wounded and succumbed while being shifted to the hospital. The terrorists opened fire at the CISF personnel at about 4.25 am.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), drones and sniffer dogs were immediately deployed by the Army to track down the terrorists and neutralise them. Mobile internet services were suspended and schools in the area shut as a precautionary measure.

Three AK-47 rifles, a satellite phone, grenades and warlike stores have been recovered from the neutralised terrorists. They fired grenades at the security forces with the Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) that damaged the police vehicles.

Jammu has been put on high alert and security tightened at the India-Pakistan border and venue of Modi’s public meeting at Palli in the Samba district of Jammu.

Director General of Police Dilbag Singh said terrorists killed in the encounter were wearing fidayeen vests and were also carrying energy drinks and medicines that indicate they were tasked to carry out major suicide strike to sabotage the visit of Prime Minister Modi on Sunday. But timely action by alert forces has foiled their plans, he said.

He said both slain terrorists belonged to JeM outfit and had freshly infiltrated from Pakistan. Talking to reporters at the encounter spot, the DGP said that late last night, acting on information about the presence of terrorists in Sunjwan area, a cordon was laid by the police and CISF personnel. “The terrorists fired indiscriminately at the security forces in which one ASI of CISF succumbed while four others sustained injuries”.

The DGP said that both killed terrorists are Pakistanis and they were wearing “fidayeen vests”. “Both were tasked to either target a security camp or to engage large number of
security forces to inflict maximum causalities,” he said.

He said that from the possession of slain terrorists, three AK-47 rifles, grenades, magazines, eatables, medicines, energy drinks etc were recovered, which are normally found with “fidayeens”. He said as of now there are no inputs to suggest they were planning to attack the PM’s rally. Asked whether there was possibility of any other terrorist in the area, the DGP said that as of now it seems that only two of them were in the area. “Since they had no old history, it seems they had infiltrated recently to carry out a big strike,” he added.

Additional DGP (Jammu) Mukesh Singh, who had reached the spot early morning, said the terrorists were hiding in a house and the area was cordoned last night following inputs about
presence of terrorists.

A CISF officer said that 13 companies of the force are deployed for law and order support duty across J&K. CISF was deployed in the outer cordon where a search operation was underway.

Terrorists attacked CISF personnel while they were boarding the bus near Chhadha Camp. The search operation in the Sunjwan area was based on an intelligence input that terrorists of JeM were active in the area and could attack the security forces. Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, DG CISF and J&K DGP Dilbag Singh have mourned death of ASI Patel.