Jammu, 25 April

The Army, CRPF, BSF, and Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday paid tributes to paratrooper Jhantu Ali Sheikh, who laid down his life while fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district.

Havaldar Sheikh, a trooper of the special forces (6 Para), was killed on Thursday in the encounter that broke out following a search operation in the Dudu-Basantgarh area of the district.

A wreath-laying ceremony for the soldier was held at the 166 Military Hospital in Jammu. Later, his body was dispatched to his native place -- Pathar Ghata village in Nadia district, West Bengal, for burial, officials said.

Senior Army, police, Central Reserve Police Force, and Border Security Force officials, led by the Chief of Staff of the White Knight Corps, Major General Shailender Singh, laid wreaths on the body of the trooper and saluted his sacrifice.

Meanwhile, a search operation to track down a group of three terrorists is ongoing in the Basantgarh belt of the district by security forces, they said.