Advertisement
Jammu and Kashmir: An official said that five Army jawans were killed and two others injured in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir after terrorists ambushed two Army vehicles.
The vehicles came under attack in the Savni area on the Thanamandi-Surankote road. The targeted vehicles were transporting jawans from an area near Bufliaz, where an ongoing operation against terrorists had been in progress since Wednesday night.
The operation was focused on the general area of DKG (Dera ki Gali), Thanamandi, Rajouri. The Army officials said troops also immediately retaliated after being attacked by terrorists. The terrorists opened fire on the convoy, which included a truck and a Gypsy.
Additional forces have been rushed to the spot. They said,”The troops were going to reinforce a joint operation against terrorists going on in the area since last evening. The operations are taking place in the 48 Rashtriya Rifles area.”
According to the information, the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the ambush. A defence PRO had told media that a joint operation was launched last night based on “hard intelligence”.
Two former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mehbooba Mufti, strongly condemned the attack. The ambush occurred several weeks following an encounter in the Bajimaal forest area in the adjacent Rajouri district, in which five Army personnel, including two captains, were killed last month.
The spot where the incident occurred is a dense forest area and deployment of Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police were there. Ghatak QRT and special forces have been called up for operations and firing is still underway by the terrorists. Notably, on Wednesday, an explosion occurred inside the compound of an armed police unit in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.
Windows of some vehicles parked near the compound were damaged due to the explosion that occurred on the intervening night of December 19 and 20 in Surankote area, officials had said. A joint operation was launched yesterday in the general area of Surankote and Bafliaz of Poonch and contact with terrorists has been established today.
