In fresh bloodletting in the Jammu region, a CRPF inspector was killed when terrorists opened fire on a patrol party in Udhampur district on Monday.

The personnel of CRPF and Special Operations Group (SOG) of the local police were attacked by terrorists around 3:30 pm in the remote Dudu area of Basantgarh, officials said.

They said inspector Kuldeep Kumar of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) belonging to the 187th battalion was hit by a bullet and later succumbed to injuries while being taken to hospital.

A police spokesman said an exchange of fire took place between terrorists and joint parties of police and CRPF during the area domination patrol at Chill village of Dudu.

“In the encounter, one inspector of CRPF suffered bullet injuries and has attained martyrdom. (The anti-terrorist) operation continues,” he said.

His mortal remains were being brought to district headquarters for postmortem.

The terrorists fled the scene after a strong retaliation by the joint patrolling party, they said, adding reinforcements have been rushed to the area and a search operation has been launched to track down and neutralise the militants.

The forest area of Basantgarh has witnessed a couple of terror incidents since April when a village defence guard was killed in a gunfight with terrorists. It was the first such incident in the area in nearly two decades which was seen by security agencies as an attempt by Pakistani handlers to revive terrorism in the Jammu region.

The incident comes five days after a gunfight in Doda district resulted in the killing of an army captain and a heavily armed terrorist.

The latest killing took the number of terror-related fatalities in Jammu and Kashmir this year to 74. The dead included 21 security personnel and 35 terrorists.

Of these, Jammu region's six districts -- Doda, Kathua, Reasi, Poonch and Rajouri districts -- accounted for 30 deaths including 14 security personnel and six terrorists.