After the two Special Police Officers (SPOs) were found dead on Thursday morning following their disappearance a day before, the focus is once again on the terror-infested Kishtwar district whose dense forest areas have become a safe haven for Pakistani terrorists after they infiltrate into India.While the police are still investigating the killing of the two SPOs identified as Rashpal Kumar and Babi Chand who were found dead in Dachhan-Marwah area, these forest areas have long remained infested with terrorists.Multiple encounters had taken place between security forces comprising Army, Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police and CRPF and highly trained Pakistani terrorists in the district this year. After infiltrating from the International Border (IB), reportedly from Kathua, the terrorists move up towards high mountain regions of Doda and Kishtwar to hide and launch operations against security forces.The area where the two SPOs were moving is also a dense forest located in a remote part of the mountainous district. The region starts witnessing intense cold conditions with the onset of winters.As per intelligence agencies, a group of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists is still active in the upper reaches of the district due to which search operations were already being carried out in the region. Senior Army and police officials had also visited the district to assess the situation in the recent past.In January, security forces had launched an operation codenamed Trashi-1 in Chatroo area of the district. A Special Forces havildar of Army died during an encounter with a group of terrorists while many soldiers were injured. The security forces pursued the group and one of the terrorists was killed on February 4 while the three others were eliminated on February 22.The security forces have also learnt that there is substantial support to these foreign terrorists from the Over Ground Workers (OGWs) who work in lieu of money from the Pakistani handlers. These OGWs provide food, mobile phones and other logistical support to the terrorists in forest areas.However, the killing of the SPOs has now renewed the focus of the security challenges in the remote upper reaches of Kishtwar. While the investigation will establish the circumstances behind the killing of the police officials, the incident has underlined the security threat in the region.