Srinagar: An off-duty Army soldier was injured after being shot by terrorists in the Tral area of Pulwama district on Wednesday, officials said.
Delhair Mushtaq, a resident of Aripal area in Tral, sustained two bullet injuries on the legs. The incident occurred near his house at Sofigund, they said.
Mushtaq was rushed to a hospital where his condition is stated to be stable, they said.
The soldier was on leave and had come home to spend time with his family. Security forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the assailants, the officials said.
Meanwhile, security forces continued their search for militants in the Dachigam forest here on Wednesday, a day after a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist was killed in an encounter in the area, officials said.
According to officials, the security forces halted their search on Tuesday night but maintained a tight cordon in the area. The search for militants in the vast mountainous and forest area of Dachigam resumed in the morning, they said.
“The search operation in the upper reaches of Dachigam continued on Wednesday and the security forces are conducting extensive searches in the area,” an official said.
LeT terrorist Junaid Ahmed Bhat was killed in an encounter with security forces on Tuesday. The category “A” terrorist was, according to police, involved in the October 20 attack near a tunnel construction site in the Gagangir area of Ganderbal in which a local doctor and six non-local labourers were killed.
Dachigam, a national park located in the Zabarwan range of the Himalayas, reaches the districts of Pulwama and Ganderbal on either side and covers an area of about 141 square kilometres.
In the meantime, a “hardcore over-ground worker of a terror group” was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act in Doda district on Wednesday, police said.
The PSA is an administrative law that allows detention without charge or trial for up to two years in some cases.
“In order to fight against anti-national elements and to curb terror-related activities in Doda, police have detained hardcore OGW Mohammad Irfan of Kanhal Bajarni Tehsil Bhagwah under the PSA and lodged him in jail following a detention order issued by the district magistrate, Doda,” police said in a statement.
It said the accused was involved in unlawful activities and “was trying to spread the terror network to revive militancy in the district at the behest of his handlers operating from across the border.
“The accused was operating in a very dubious manner and his activities were a constant threat to the society at large and were prejudicial to the peace, tranquility and security of the region.
“The subject was warned a number of times and bound down to desist himself from anti-national activities but he did not change his behaviour and was deemed a grave potential to assist militants in their nefarious designs to revive militancy in the district,” police said.
He has been lodged at Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu after obtaining a detention order from the district magistrate, Doda, it said.
“The step is taken to maintain the safety and security of the region and is a loud warning to all the anti-national elements to either mend their ways or the law of the land will firmly be applied against them,” the statement said.
