5 soldiers killed in Rajouri; manhunt for terrorists on
The soldiers were part of army squads trying to hunt down the terrorists responsible for the April 20 ambush.
Five Indian soldiers were killed and an officer was wounded in a terror ambush in Rajouri’s Kandi forest area on Friday morning, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether the attack was carried out by the same group of terrorists that ambushed an army truck and killed five soldiers on April 20. While officials familiar with the matter said it was, others said there could be two groups, both with two-three Pakistani terrorists and additional local ones.
Read here: Hidden IED, indiscriminate fire: How Rajouri attack unfolded
The deaths of 10 Indian Army personnel in two ambushes in the same area in a span of two weeks is cause for concern, experts said. While there was no confirmation of the terrorists being killed, some security officials said there is a very high likelihood of casualties among the terrorists too, given the intensity of the Indian reaction.
Four of the soldiers killed on Friday were commandos from the 9 Para (Special Forces) while the fifth was from a Rashtriya Rifles battalion, people aware of the matter told HT. The army identified them as Havildar Neelam Singh from Akhnoor, Naik Arvind Kumar from Palampur, Lance Naik Ruchin Singh Rawat from Gairsain in Uttarakhand, Paratrooper Siddhant Chettri from Darjeeling, and Paratrooper Pramod Negi from Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh.
The soldiers were part of army squads trying to hunt down the terrorists responsible for the April 20 ambush.
They were killed as they closed in on the position of the terrorists, who triggered an IED (improvised explosive device), officials said.
The injured officer is a Major, and is undergoing treatment at the Northern Command Hospital in Udhampur.
“On specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in Rajouri sector, a joint operation was launched on May 3. At about 7.30am, a search team established contact with a group of terrorists who were well entrenched in a cave. The terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation,” said Jammu-based defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand.
Read here: Pakistan-based terror groups shift focus from Valley to Rajouri, Poonch
Security officials said the Kandi terror attack may have been handled from across the Line of Control , specifically from Kotli, by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Habibullah Malik alias Sajjid Jutt; from the terror group’s HQ in Muridke by Reyaz Ahmed alias Qasim and Rafiq Nai alias Sultan. The officials, who asked not to be named, said Jutt is married to a Kashmiri, involved in dropping weapons in Jammu by drones, and in charge of coordinating recruitment, weapons smuggling, and financing. The officials added that he is believed to be behind the Rajouri attack too. Qasim, according to the officials, was behind the terror attack at Dhangri on January 1, and has a local network that provides logistical support to terrorists. The officials said that Sultan has been active in the Poonch-Rajouri sector, and provided support to the terrorists involved in the Bhata Dhurian attack that left nine Indian soldiers dead.
“The focus now needs to be on the possibility of local support to terrorists who appear to have excellent knowledge of the terrain and hideouts in the area. The two ambushes are a matter of serious concern,” said military affairs expert and former army vice chief Lieutenant General AS Lamba (retd).
Additional teams from the vicinity were rushed to the site after the IED explosion.
Officials said terrorists may still be trapped in the area, and there is a likelihood of casualties on their side as well.
The operations are still in progress, Anand said.
Besides commandos of 9 Para SF, men from the Central Reserve Police Force and special operations group of Jammu and Kashmir Police were also involved in the operation.
The army has deployed choppers and drones to scan the jungles to track down the terrorists, whose numbers are estimated to be between seven and nine, the officials said, asking not to be named. The operation is taking place in the jungles of Kotranka, around 180 kms from Jammu.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh had on April 28 asked the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) regional bloc to work towards eliminating terrorism and hold those who aid it accountable at the defence ministers’ meeting of the grouping, even as Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif skipped the event.
On Friday, external affairs minister S Jaishankar lashed out at Islamabad after a meeting that involved his Pakistani counterpart, calling it “a promoter, justifier and spokesperson of a terrorism industry which is the mainstay of Pakistan”.
In 2021, the army lost nine soldiers in three days in the Bhata Dhurian jungles of Poonch.
While five army personnel including a junior commissioned officer (JCO) were killed on October 11 in Chamrer area, a JCO and three soldiers were killed on October 14 in Nar Khas forest — but this was during a counter-terror operation. The first attack, the ambush on the truck, was the first of its kind targeting the army in years.
Read here: 5 soldiers killed during ongoing anti-terror operation in J&K’s Rajouri
A group calling itself the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), regarded as an offshoot of Jaish-e-Mohammad, which had claimed responsibility for the April 20 ambush, also claimed responsibility for the latest attack. It shared a “press release” on social media, issued by “spokesperson” Tanveer Ahmad Rather linking the April 20 ambush and Friday’s attack.
HT, however, couldn’t independently vouch for its veracity.