Security forces on Wednesday (January 14, 2026) stepped up an ongoing search operation by extending the cordon to track down and neutralise terrorists in remote villages of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, officials said.
Several gunshots were heard when the security forces launched the operation in the Najote forest area in Billawar tehsil on Tuesday (January 13, 2026) based on information about the presence of a terrorist there.
There was no contact between the terrorist and the security forces. Fresh inputs suggested that he managed to escape the cordon by taking advantage of the treacherous terrain and darkness, the officials said.
He took food from a shepherd in a nearby area around midnight before moving deep into the forest, they said.
Reinforcements have been fanned out in different directions and more than a dozen villages around Najote have been cordoned off to track down the terrorist and his associates, they added.
