Eleven days after Joint Forces neutralized four Jaish-e-Muhammad militants in an operation at Ban toll plaza on Jammu-Srinagar Highway near Nagrota in Jammu district, the truck driver who was ferrying those militants is still at large.
Pertinently, on 20 November last month, there was a gunfight between Joint Forces and the militants near Ban Toll Plaza after a truck was intercepted by Forces. All the four militants boarding the truck were killed in the pre-dawn gunfight; however, the truck driver managed to escape from the spot and is still absconding.Two policemen of the counter insurgent Special Operations Group (SOG) Kuldeep Raj of Akhnoor in Jammu district and Muhammad Ishaq Malik of Neel Qasim Banihal in Ramban district were also injured in this gunfight.
SSP Jammu Sridhar Patil declined to comment on the issue. When contacted by KNT, Patil said: “There is nothing important to share anything about the subject.”
A police official, however, on condition of anonymity said that truck driver may have managed to escape from the spot during the mayhem. He said most probably the driver either disappeared in the forest or may have been picked up by another vehicle.
He said that police have intensified searches but the driver has not been arrested as yet. The official added that the identity of the driver is being ascertained and efforts are on to trace him.Divulging information about the Ban Plaza encounter, IGP Jammu had informed media that in the three hour long operation, all the four militants were killed while 11 AK-47 rifles, three pistols, 29 live grenades, six UBGL grenades, mobile phones, compass, pithy bags and other ammunition were recovered from the slain militants. KNT
