Gunbattle with terrorists underway in J&K’s Rajouri day after 5 Army jawans killed
JAMMU/KASHMIR,MAY 6 : A day after five Army personnel were killed in an explosion triggered by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri, a gunbattle between security forces and terrorists started on Saturday morning. Fresh firing started after a contact was established between security forces and terrorists in Rajouri district.
This is part of an ongoing operation in the Kandi forest in the Rajouri sector to flush out terrorists.
“An encounter is underway in Kandi forest in Rajouri. Contact has been established with terrorists,” PRO Defence Jammu said in a statement.
Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi is at Ground Zero to review the operational situation in the ongoing operations at Kandi in Rajouri where contact was re-established with militants. He was briefed on all aspects of the operations by ground commanders.
The army had launched an operation to flush out terrorists who were responsible for a recent attack on the army in which five soldiers were killed in Poonch.
On Friday, based on specific information about the presence of terrorists in Kandi Forest in Rajouri, an operation was launched at around 7:30 am to flush out terrorists involved in an ambush on an army truck in Tota Gali area, the Army said in a statement.
A search team soon established contact with a group of terrorists well entrenched in a cave.
Officials said additional troops of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Army were inducted into the area to put it in a tight cordon so that terrorists do not escape from the spot.
Rajouri encounter: 5 Army jawans killed, operation to flush out terrorists underway
The forces deployed drones and sniffer dogs and troops hit a cave hideout with heavy fire of mortars and grenades. But the terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation.
Two soldiers died on the spot and three injured soldiers died in a hospital, the Army said.
The People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), a shadow organisation of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit, has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, news agency PTI reported.
The security forces have been engaged in a massive combing operation for the past 15 days in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch districts. The operations started after the attack on Army vehicle in Bhatta Dhurian in which five soldiers were killed and another was injured on April 20.
-PTI
