Security forces have intensified search operations using aerial surveillance and sniffer dogs following a night-long cordon after fresh reports of suspected movement of three individuals, believed to be terrorists, who escaped a recent encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, officials said.

Two terrorists and four policemen were killed while three others, including a deputy superintendent of police, were injured during a gunfight in a remote forested area in the Sanyal belt of the district on Thursday. Security forces, which have picked up six persons for questioning, have also launched a search operation in Samba sector near the international border to sanitise the area, while the entire border belt has been put on alert, officials said.