CHANDIGARH: In a day long gun battle, Army, BSF and J&K Police in a joint operation on Sunday eliminated 2 heavily armed terrorists in Samba District of J&K.

The entire operation started early morning on Sunday when two terrorists in combat uniform barged into the house of Hoshiar Singh, a political worker of Indian Democratic Party in Samba, J & K. Hoshiar Singh immediately called up the Police and as a result the terrorists cold bloodedly killed him & his wife and injured his daughter. Having compromised their position, they then moved out immediately only to be confronted by a patrol of the Army. In the ensuring firefight two Jawans of the Army got injured. 

There after the terrorist moved into the house of one Suresh Kumar of the same locality which was in a thickly populated area of Samba. They took 5 persons hostages. In the mean time, columns of Army, BSF and J & K Police reached the site and cordoned off the area and the firefight continued for almost 10 hours culminating in the elimination of the 2 terrorists by evening. 

The security forces in a daring act rescued the hostages holed up in the house with the militants before going all out to eliminate the terrorists. The security forces made all out efforts to avoid collateral damage to civilian life and property due to which the operation took considerable time. The close cooperation between the Army, BSF and J&K Police in this operation needs special mention.

A Total of 5 persons including Ashok Sodhi, photojournalist of the Daily Excelsior and a jawan of the Army were killed in the gun battle. The injured included the SP (Operations), Jammu and the column commander of the Army and 5 other security forces personnel.