BUNTY MAHAJAN
JAMMU, APRIL 5:
Five Army soldiers were killed and one injured on Friday morning in an IED explosion triggered by holed up terrorists at Kesari Top Dhok in upper reaches of Kandi in Kotranka sub division of border Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir.
The troops along with Jammu Kashmir Police personnel had jointly launched combing and search operation as part of their continued “Op Trinetra’’ to flush out terrorists who had attacked an Army truck killing five soldiers near Bhatta Durian on the Bhimber Gali – Surankote road in Poonch district on April 20 afternoon.
The soldiers who laid down their lives in the service of the nation have been identified as L/Nk Ruchin Singh Rawat S/O Rajendra Singh of Kunigad village in Uttrakhan, Paratrooper Siddhant Chettri S/O Kharka Bahdur of Pulbazar in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district, Nk Arvind Kumar S/O Ujwaal Singh of Suri (Chatiala) village in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district, Havildar Neelam Singh S/O Gurdev Singh of Dalpat village in Jammu district’s Akhnoor sub division, besides Paratrooper Pramod Negi S/O Devinder Singh Negi of Shillai village in Sirmaur distric of Himachal Pradesh.
Pointing out that the Indian Army columns have been conducting relentless intelligence based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in ambush on an army truck near Bhata Dhurian, Army PRO Lt Colonel Devender Anand here said that following specific information about presence of terrorists in the Kandi forest in Rajouri Sector, a joint operation was launched on May 3.
A search team on Friday around 7.30 am established contact with a group of terrorists well entrenched in a cave. The area is thickly vegetated with rocky and steep cliffs, he added.
The terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation in which Army team has suffered two fatal casualties with injuries to four more soldiers including an officer. The injured were evacuated to the Army’s Command Hospital at Udhampur, but three of them succumbed to their injuries.
People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) has claimed responsibility for the Friday attack.
Additional teams from the vicinity have been directed to the site of encounter by road and through helicopter sorties also. The operation was in progress, with army saying that the terrorists were in the forests and they are likely to have suffered casualties as well.
The UT administration suspended mobile internet services in the district soon after the news about casualties on security forces side started pouring in.
Meanwhile, security in and around Katra town and the holy Mata Vaishno Devi shrine has been beefed up in view of the terror attack. Having set up more nakas and intensified patrolling, the police and CRPF have started checking all the vehicles including two wheelers moving towards Katra town which acts as base camp for pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine.
