Two days of anxious waiting ended in tragedy on Thursday. The bullet-riddled bodies of two Special Police Officers (SPOs), who had gone missing in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, were recovered from a forest area in the Dachhan sector this morning.
The deceased are SPO Rashpal Kumar (Belt No. 65) and SPO Bobby Chand (Belt No. 920). Both were residents of Kiyar Dachhan and were posted with SOG Kiyar Sector Dachhan.
The two went untraceable on November 10. They had been detailed for rotation duty at the Army camp at Dharna, Sector Marwah, but never reported for duty. Sources say they were moving towards the post to relieve two colleagues when they disappeared.
Gunshots were reportedly heard in the area during the daytime. Initially, their mobile phones were reachable. Later, both phones went switched off, raising a serious alarm. A massive search and cordon operation was launched by police and security forces.
One SPO reportedly had a bullet wound on his head, the other on his back. Their service weapons, an INSAS rifle and a .303 rifle, were not found at the spot. Preliminary indications are that terrorists lay in ambush and opened fire, then fled with the weapons.
Security forces have now intensified the operation in the area to trace and neutralise those behind the killings. Further details are awaited.
Kishtwar’s remote and forested terrain has remained a focus of counter-insurgency operations, with several active terrorists killed in recent times. Separately, on October 16, another SPO, Bashir Ahmed, was found dead near his home in the district. A police investigation later established he was murdered by relatives over a land dispute, so that case is not linked to terror.
Meanwhile, MLA Kishtwar Shagun Parihar said that the body of one SPO was recovered at 8 am this morning, while another bullet-ridden body was found at a distance of about 1 kilometre at 9 am. “After getting information about the recovery of the bodies of both the missing SPOs, I am leaving for Dechhan,” she said and hoped that authorities would take appropriate action against terrorists involved in killing both the SPOs.
MLA Kishtwar blamed Pakistan for this incident and regretted that our neighbouring country was not ready to allow people of Jammu and Kashmir to live in peace.