At least five soldiers were killed when a group of terrorists ambushed them inside a jungle in Jammu & Kashmir’s Rajouri district on Friday. The terrorists behind the attack on an army truck on April 20 in Poonch that left five soldiers dead are also believed to have been involved in the fresh ambush.
Jammu-based defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said that five soldiers have laid down their lives during an ongoing operation in Rajouri. A major rank officer was injured and undergoing treatment in Udhampur.
People aware of the matter said the fresh attack was launched near a cave where terrorists detonated an improvised explosive device before resorting to indiscriminate firing. Besides army commandos, paramilitary forces and Jammu & Kashmir Police were involved in the operation.
In a statement on Friday morning, Anand said the army has been conducting intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in the ambush on the army truck in the Poonch district. “On specific information about [the] presence of terrorists in the Kandi forest in Rajouri Sector, a joint operation was launched on Wednesday. At about 0730 hours on Friday, a search team established contact with a group of terrorists well entrenched in a cave. The area is thickly vegetated with rocky and steep cliffs,” said Anand.
“The terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation. The Army team has suffered two fatal casualties with injuries to four more soldiers including an officer.”
