Kathua Terror Attack: NIA Team To Assist J-K Police In Probe; Search Ops Underway To Track Down Terrorists

An NIA team was sent to Kathua in Jammu region to extend all possible support to the local police in its probe in the Kathua terror attack.

Kathua Terror Attack: A team of NIA sleuths has been dispatched to assist the Jammu and Kashmir Police in its investigation into the Kathua terror attack which left five Indian Army personnel dead and as many injured.

Officials said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) team was sent to Kathua in Jammu region to extend all possible support to the local police in its probe in the terrorist attack on a Army convoy in the district on Monday.

However, the federal probe agency has not registered any separate case in connection with the Kathua terror attack and will provide assistance to the J-K Police in the investigation, they said.

Search ops underway

Meanwhile, a massive search operation was underway on Tuesday in the region as joint teams of the police, paramilitary forces and the Indian Army sweeped the mountainous forest area to track down the the terrorists who carried out the dastardly ambush on an Indian Army convoy, killing five personnel, including a junior commissioned officer (JCO),

Jammu and Kashmir Police Chief R R Swain personally flew to the area to oversee the operation on the ground as the search operation was expanded to encompass large areas in the adjoining districts of Udhampur and Kathua, including Basantgarh, Seoj (a high-altitude area in Udhampur), and the upper reaches of Bani, Daggar, and Kindli in Kathua district, officials said.

Special forces of the Indian Army’s ‘Para’ unit have been deployed to conduct surgical operations against the terrorists in specific areas, they said.

Kathua Terror Attack

On Monday, a patrolling party of the Indian Army was ambushed by a group of heavily armed terrorists on the rugged Machedi-Kindli-Malhar mountainous road near the Badnota village in Lohai Malhar, approximately 150 km from the Kathua district’s headquarters.

The brazen terror attack, fifth of its kind in the Jammu region within a month, left five Army personnel, including a JCO dead, while five others sustained injuries.

Earlier, on Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu called the terrorist attack as a “cowardly act” which deserves condemnation, besides firm counter-measures.

(With PTI inputs)