Officials reported on Friday that two troops were killed and four others, including an officer, were hurt in a confrontation with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.
According to a defence spokeswoman, the army has begun an operation to capture the terrorists responsible for a recent attack on the army that claimed the lives of five troops.
The statement claimed that during the operation, “terrorists detonated explosives in retaliation, inflicting two casualties on the army and injuring four additional soldiers, including an officer.”
The injured personnel have been evacuated to Command Hospital, Udhampur, the army said. The operation was launched at Kesri Hill in the Kandi area of the Rajouri district. The army said that they had received specific information about the presence of a group of terrorists entrenched in a cave.
According to the army, the group of terrorists is involved in an ambush on an army truck on April 20 at Bhata Dhurian in Poonch district. Five soldiers were killed in the attack, and the terrorists also fled with the weapons of the fallen soldiers.
“Indian 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 Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in the Jammu region,” said the army spokesperson.
He said that additional troops from the vicinity have been directed to the site of the encounter. According to the army, initial reports suggest a group of terrorists is trapped in the area and there is a “likelihood of casualties in the terrorist group”.
The incident appeared to be a repeat of an October 2021 operation in the Rajouri-Poonch region, when five soldiers were killed in an encounter with terrorists.
During the operation that followed, four more army soldiers were killed in an ambush by terrorists. After a month-long operation, no terrorist could be tracked down. After last month’s Bhata Durian attack, a massive cordon and search operation has been underway without significant success in tracking down the attackers.