Srinagar: Bullet-riddled bodies of two Jammu and Kashmir Police Special Police Officers (SPOs), who went missing from the upper reaches of Dachhan in Kishtwar district on November 11, were recovered on the morning of November 12.The killings happened hours after an attack in Kulgam on November 11, in which unidentified assailants opened fire on a patrolling party of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), injuring three personnel.The policemen have been identified as Babi Chand, 57, and Rashpal Kumar, 45. According to officials who spoke to PTI, the duo were attached to the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the J&K Police, were posted at the village of Kiyar, in Dachhan, and had been deployed with the 17th Battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles at a post in Derna over the last few days.According to officials, the two personnel had left the Kiyar camp to relieve personnel manning a Temporary Operational Base of the 17th Battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles deployed in the Basnan area of Inderwal for an Army post at Dharna-Marwah. It was discovered that they failed to reach there. Their mobile phones were initially reachable but were subsequently switched off, raising concerns over their whereabouts.The police and army launched a joint search operation to trace the missing cops, and security was subsequently beefed up in the area. Security personnel were deployed across the forested stretches and difficult mountainous terrain. Specialised teams equipped with drones and sniffer dogs were deployed, officials said.The night-long search operation came to an end this morning. According to initial reports, the circumstances surrounding their killings and the identity of those attackers remains unestablished.Bharatiya Janata party MLA from Kishtwar, Shagun Parihar, called the killings tragic and sought an immediate response from the Union government.Speaking to news agency ANI, Parihar said one body was recovered around 8 am and the second at approximately 9 am. She urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure that those responsible were brought to justice.“Pakistan continues to persist with its nefarious conspiracies,” she claimed, calling for a response of “fourfold magnitude” to the killings.Notably, the circumstances of the incident and the identity of the perpetrators have not been officially established.The killings have once again brought the security situation in Chenab valley into focus. The mountainous Kishtwar district, particularly its remote and forested belts, has witnessed a series of terror-related incidents in recent years.Security forces have conducted successive counter-insurgency operations in the district. Officials have said that these operations are intended to target the remaining militant presence in difficult-to-access areas of the region. While militants have been killed in these operations, the extensive forest cover and challenging terrain continue to complicate surveillance and security operations for the forces.Reported figures indicate that five people, four militants and one Army soldier, were killed in terror-related incidents in Kishtwar in 2026. In 2025, the district recorded four deaths, including three militants and one Army soldier. In 2024, three security personnel and two civilians lost their lives in terror incidents.The latest killings also come amid appeals from the district administration for greater public participation in efforts to counter militancy.On October 4, Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Sharma appealed to residents of the remote areas of Marwah, Warwan and Dachhan to cooperate with security agencies and share timely information about the movement of suspected militants. Sharma had said that the three areas had considerable tourism potential, but the presence of active militants remained a major obstacle to tourist movement. He had stressed that peace and security were essential for tourism and sustainable development in the region.