Explosions, Fresh Firing In J&K's Poonch As Anti-Terror Ops Enter Day 15

This is one of the longest and toughest operations that security forces have engaged in J&K in last 18 years. Nine soldiers, including two officers, have been killed in the encounter.

Explosions and heavy firing was reported from Mendhar forests of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir as Army's massive search operation to track down hiding terrorists entered its 15th day today.

This is one of the longest and toughest operations that security forces have engaged in J&K in last 18 years. Nine soldiers, including two officers, have been killed in encounter where terrorists are believed to be well entrenched in a dense forest area.

Yesterday, two policemen and an army soldier were injured after they came under firing by terrorists, police said.

According to police, they had taken an arrested terrorist Zia Mustafa to the encounter site for "identification of a terrorist hideout" when they came under fire.