KISHTWAR: Two Special Police Officers deployed with the Army's 17 Rashtriya Rifles went missing in the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district on Wednesday after firing was reported in a forest area, officials said. Police, the Army and the Central Reserve Police Force launched a joint search operation in the remote Marwah-Dachhan belt.

The personnel were travelling from Kiyar Dachhan to relieve a 17 Rashtriya Rifles team at a temporary operational base in Basnan, in the Inderwal area, when contact with them was lost. They were carrying their weapons, officials said.

At a glance

  • The two SPOs were attached to the Special Operations Group and deployed with 17 Rashtriya Rifles.
  • Firing was reported in the Deharna forest area on Wednesday afternoon.
  • The missing personnel were identified in initial reports as Rishipal, also spelt Rashpal Kumar, and Bobby, also spelt Babbi, Chand.
  • Police, Army and CRPF teams were searching the forested area.

What happened

The two SPOs had been deployed with 17 Rashtriya Rifles for patrolling and area-domination duties in the Derna area over the previous few days, officials said. They were moving towards Basnan to relieve personnel at the temporary operational base.

Firing was reported in the Deharna forest area at about 3.30 pm while they were on the route. Local residents reported hearing gunshots in the stretch between Kiyar and Derna before the two personnel went missing.

Initial reports gave differing spellings of the names of the missing men. They identified them as Rishipal or Rashpal Kumar, aged 40, and Bobby or Babbi Chand, aged 54. Both were reported to be residents of Dachhan.

Mobile network services were disrupted in the area around the time of the incident. Officials said Kiyar was a shadow zone with no reliable mobile connectivity, which hampered communication with teams on the ground.

An SOG party accompanied by the Station House Officer left for the area at around 7 pm. Reinforcements were sent later to trace the two personnel and recover their weapons.

Who said what

A police officer said the two SPOs were heading to the makeshift 17 Rashtriya Rifles base at Basnan when they went missing. The officer said the difficult terrain and poor mobile connectivity had complicated the search.

Army, CRPF and police teams had begun searches but had found no clue to the missing men at that stage, the officer said. Police and Army authorities had not issued a detailed public statement on the circumstances in which they went missing.

People familiar with the development said they could not rule out a brief exchange of fire. However, there was no official confirmation of an encounter.

One official said the route from Derna to Dachhan involved a nearly three-hour walk through dense Kiyar forests. Road connectivity begins at Sounder in Dachhan, the official said.

Background

The incident occurred in the upper reaches of the Marwah-Dachhan region of Kishtwar district, where dense forests and difficult terrain have posed challenges for security operations.

The area had served as a hideout for Hizbul Mujahideen militants during the peak of militancy in the wider Doda region. Security forces had killed Pakistani militants in the region earlier this year following search operations, according to officials familiar with the security situation.

Jahangir Saroori, described as a Hizbul Mujahideen commander and among the longest-surviving militants in the Chenab Valley, is believed to be hiding in the upper reaches of Kishtwar, officials said.

What next

Search teams continued to comb forest routes linking Kiyar, Derna, Basnan and Dachhan. The operation was under way to locate the two SPOs and establish what happened after firing was reported in the area.