Five Indian Army jawans killed in counter-terror op in Jammu and Kashmir

Five Army personnel were killed in a blast that was triggered by militants in a thickly vegetated area in the border Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday morning.

According to the army, the terrorists belonged to the same group that ambushed an army truck on April 20 in which five soldiers were killed and one more was injured. The area has a history of terrorist movements.

“On specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi forest in the Rajouri sector, a joint operation was launched. 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,” Army PRO Lt Colonel Devender Anand said.

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 Jammu region,” he said.

Read | Two newly-recruited LeT militants killed in encounter in J&K’s Baramulla

The terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation. The Army team has suffered five fatal casualties with injuries to four more soldiers, including an officer, Col Anand said.

The injured have been taken to the Command Hospital in Udhampur. With the operation in progress, further details are awaited. Mobile internet services were suspended in Rajouri following the incident.

Initial reports said a group of terrorists are trapped in the area. There is a likelihood of casualties in the terrorists' group.

Since the April 20 attack on an army vehicle, searches are being conducted extensively as some cave-type natural structures are present in the area and there were reports that the militants might be using them for the purpose of shelter with the support of some locals for food.