Two separate Cordon and Search Operations (CASO) were launched in Lathishart Tujjar area of Sopore in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district and Safnagri village of south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
A joint team of the Army’s 22 RR, Special Operations Group of J&K Police and CRPF launched the CASO and conducted house-to-house searches in the area. The forces installed lights in the area and sealed entry and exit points.
Police said that search operation was launched following inputs about the presence of militants in the area. The searches in the area were going on when last reports came in.
Lathishart village lies adjacent to Tujjar Sharief Sopore where top Al-Badr commander Abdul Ghani Khawaja was killed three days ago in a gunfight.
In Shopian, a police official said that columns of army, CRPF and police ring-fenced Safnagri village of the district and carried out door to door search operations. The operations, according to the official, was conducted after the forces were tipped off about the presence of militants in these villages.
The operation was underway at the time of filing this report.