5 jawans killed in Rajouri operations; India slams Pakistan's talks offer
Arjun Sharma
Jammu, May 5
Five Army men were killed and a Major injured today in an explosion triggered by terrorists in the thickly forested Kandi area in Rajouri district. The explosion occurred while an operation was underway to flush out terrorists suspected to be behind the Army truck ambush in Poonch on April 20 that killed five soldiers.
On April 20
FIVE soldiers were killed as terrorists ambushed Army truck in Poonch
In the morning, two soldiers belonging to the Special Forces were killed and four others, including the Major, injured during the ongoing operation in the Rajouri sector. Later in the day, three soldiers succumbed to their injuries in a hospital in Udhampur, an Army spokesperson said. Mobile internet facilities in Rajouri area have been suspended.
“On specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi forest in the Rajouri sector, a joint operation was launched on May 3. Around 7.30 am 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.
“The terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation. The Army team suffered two fatal casualties with injuries to four more soldiers, including an officer. Three of the soldiers later succumbed to their injures,” said a Northern Command statement.
It said additional teams from the vicinity had been directed to the site of the encounter. “There is a likelihood of casualties in the terrorist group and the operation is in progress,” it said.
“Army columns have been conducting relentless intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an Army truck in the Bhata Dhurian area of Poonch in Jammu region,” Lt Col Devender Anand, Jammu-based Army PRO, said in a statement.
The Army has been aggressively searching for the terrorists since the April 20 attack. The terrorists who ambushed the Army truck reportedly included the two ultras behind the Dhangri attack in Rajouri in which seven members of the Hindu community were killed on January 1 and 2 this year.
Sources in Military Intelligence said a track on the movement of ultras was being kept. “This is probably the same group that was behind the Poonch ambush,” said the sources.
THE DECEASED
- L/Nk Ruchin Singh Rawat, Gairsain, Uttarakhand
- Paratrooper Siddhant Chettri, Darjeeling, WB
- Nk Arvind Kumar, Palampur, HP
- Havildar Neelam Singh, Akhnoor, Jammu
- Paratrooper Pramod Negi, Shillai, Sirmaur, HP
Casualties in Rajouri-Poonch attacks
April 20, 2023: 5 soldiers killed as terrorists ambushed Army truck in Bhata Dhurian, Poonch
August 2022: 4 soldiers, including JCO, killed when 2 terrorists tried to enter Army camp in Pargal, Rajouri
October 2021: 9 soldiers killed in encounter which lasted fortnight in Bhata Dhurian, Poonch
August 2021: Army man killed in encounter in Thanamandi, Rajouri
