Jammu: Junior Commissioned Officer and four Jawans were killed on Monday during a fierce encounter between security forces and heavily armed terrorists in Poonch district.
According to official sources, the Army personnel were critically injured in a gunfight with terrorists in villages close to Dara Ki Gali (DKG) in Surankote area of Poonch district, and succumbed to injuries later at a medical facility.
The encounter started in the morning following intelligence inputs as the security forces launched a Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) in the area, where three to four terrorists were believed holed up, official sources said..
“The terrorists fired at the joint patrol party, which was retaliated leading to the encounter,” sources added. Exchange of fire is still underway, a defence spokesperson said.
Confirming the incident, Defence PRO (Jammu) Lt Col Devender Anand said,”Based on intelligence inputs, today morning Indian Army has launched a Cordon and Search operation in villages close to Dera Ki Gali (DKG) in Surankote jurisdiction of district Poonch.”
“In the ongoing encounter with terrorists, one JCO, four jawans of Indian Army suffered critical injuries who were immediately shifted to nearby medical facility.”
Col Anand added that critically injured JCO and four jawans were evacuated to the nearest medical facility, and succumbed to their injuries during treatment.
The twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri along Line of Control (LoC) have been a hot spot of terror related activities in the recent past.
On August 9, a joint team of security forces- BSF along with Army and SOG Poonch- in a joint operation busted a hideout in Mendher area and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition- a warlike store in the forested area.
The recoveries included two AK 47 Rifle, four Ak 47 magazines, one Chinese pistol, 10 pistol magazines, one Set I-Com, four Chinese grenades, four non-electric detonators, 15 fuse detonators of Chinese grenades, 16-meter cordex, 257 Ak-47 ammunition rounds, 68 rounds of 9 mm Chinese ammunition, 23 rounds of 7.65 mm ammunition, two mobile phones, 12 battery mobile chargers and two 9 volt batteries.
In Rajouri, a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) of the Army was killed in an encounter while one terrorist also was killed in a fierce gunfight in the Kangota area of Thanamandi Tehsil on August 19.
On August 6, two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in the same area.
On July 8, two heavily armed Pakistani terrorists were gunned down as the Army foiled an infiltration bid in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri while two army jawans were also killed during exchange of fire in the Dadal area.
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