Two Kishtwar SPOs Missing en Route to Army Post; Police and Rashtriya Rifles Expand Search Operation
A joint search by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Army’s Rashtriya Rifles (RR) is under way in the remote Dachhan area of Kishtwar district after two Special Police Officers (SPOs) attached to the police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) went missing on Wednesday.
The missing officers are Babi Chand, 57, and Rashpal Kumar, 45, who were posted at the SOG camp in Kiyar village. They were travelling from the camp to an Army post at Dharna-Marwah — also rendered as Dherna or Deharna in some reports — to relieve Rashtriya Rifles personnel manning a Temporary Operating Base (TOB). They did not arrive at the post.
Officials said the men’s mobile phones were initially reachable before being switched off. The area has poor mobile connectivity and is difficult to access, with parts of the route requiring travel on foot through dense forest.
Reports say the SPOs were part of a patrol deployed with 17 RR for area domination. Locals reportedly heard gunshots in the forest between Kiyar and Derana/Deharna around the time contact with the officers was lost. Some accounts have also said the men went missing with their service weapons; that detail has not been confirmed in the information available.
Police and Rashtriya Rifles teams began searching the surrounding mountainous and forested terrain. By Thursday (November 12), the operation had entered its second day and was expanded, with additional personnel, drones and sniffer dogs sent to scan inaccessible stretches and track possible movement along trails and in remote pockets. Some reports have also mentioned the CRPF’s involvement. No trace of the two SPOs had been reported by then.
Officials have cautioned against linking the disappearance to militant activity before the facts are established. The incident has nevertheless drawn attention to security challenges in Kishtwar’s remote belt, where a residual militant presence has been reported in the higher forested areas despite counter-insurgency operations that have eliminated several active terrorists in recent years. The terrain continues to make operations difficult.
The search is continuing as security forces try to locate the two officers and establish the circumstances of their disappearance. Further details are awaited.
