'Terrorists Hid in My Bathroom,' Local Man Recounts Horrifying Moments After Jammu Encounter

• Image Credit: Internet

• Apr 23, 2022 | Pratiksha

The two alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists attempted to enter the residence but were unable to do so since all entrance points were shut. They took refuge in the courtyard restroom. 

Digital Desk: It is a sehri that Ansar Ahmed and his family will never forget. Shots rang out outside Ansar's house around 3:30 a.m. on Friday, while his wife and daughters, ages 7 and 9, were preparing for Ramzan's morning meal. Their windows cracked, and huge explosions could be heard.

Ansar was at his father's house next door. When his terrified family called, the only advice he could give them was to leave the damaged kitchen area and go to the bedroom on the backside of the home. That room, too, was soon littered with bullets.

The two alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists attempted to enter the residence but were unable to do so since all entrance points were shut. They took refuge in the courtyard bathroom. When media personnel went to the scene, there were live bullets strewn throughout the restroom. There were gunshots in the air conditioner, and the entire space was coated in smashed glass. The blasts that were triggered when police detonated the suicide vests that the terrorists were wearing also impacted nearby homes.

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"We didn't know they were hiding in these bathrooms. We don't usually use them. My family is still terrified. Look at my house…it is damaged everywhere," Ansar told the reporters.

AK series rifles, pistols, grenades, chocolates, dates, and paracetamol tablets with Urdu markings were recovered from the terrorists. These were likely JeM militants on a suicide mission, according to police.

"The kind of suicide vests, expensive-made in Poland and made in Vietnam, medicines, etc, that these terrorists were carrying…looks like it was Jaish. Similar equipment and modus operandi were found in the Bann toll plaza encounter…there too Jaish terrorists were involved," additional director general of police (Jammu) Mukesh Singh told the media.

Fixed-wing drones were used by police to locate the two terrorists' hiding place. According to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the fight began when terrorists fired grenades from an under-barrel grenade launcher (UBGL) at a Jammu and Kashmir police checkpoint and then at a bus carrying 15 CISF personnel on their way to work near Chaddha Camp in Jammu at about 4.25 a.m. As the army reacted, the terrorists, who were firing from a house's terrace, fled into the Jalalabad neighbourhood.

Security personnel then launched a fixed-wing drone over the region and utilised thermal imaging technology to pinpoint the source of the retaliatory fire. The two terrorists were eliminated after a five-hour battle.