Five soldiers killed in attack on army truck
Five soldiers killed, five wounded in a terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir's Kathua district. Terrorists opened fire and lobbed grenades at an army truck.
Five soldiers were killed and five wounded on Monday after terrorists opened fire with automatic weapons and lobbed hand grenades at an army truck passing through a village in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua district, shattering the calm in a relatively quiet area of the Union territory at a time of heightened tension, officials aware of the development said.
The ambush at Badnota village took place around 3.30pm and resembled a terror attack carried out in the Rajouri sector in December 2023 in which four soldiers were killed.
The terrorists are believed to have fled the scene after carrying out the latest attack even as the army sent in reinforcements to hunt them down, the officials said. The village is situated south-east of Jammu and around 120km from Kathua town.
“An army truck was ambushed by armed terrorists at Badnota village in Loi Malhar area in Billawar tehsil. The terrorists, believed to be two to three in numbers, first lobbed a grenade and then resorted to firing from automatic weapons. At least five soldiers were killed and five others injured in the ambush,” said a police officer, who declined to be named. The injured soldiers were rushed to a military hospital.
There was no official word from the army on the attack at the time of going to print.
A police statement issued earlier spoke of exchange of fire between the terrorists and security forces in Kathua’s Machhedi area following which a search operation was launched.
“After attacking the army truck, terrorists fled into the nearby forest. Additional reinforcements have been rushed to the area and a search operation has been launched to track down the attackers,” the official cited above said.
The terrorists are believed to have recently infiltrated from across the international border and were moving towards the higher reaches for a possible ingress into the Kashmir Valley. The army vehicle was part of a routine patrol on the Machhedi-Kindli-Malhar road, HT has learnt.
The ambush came a day after a soldier was injured in a suspected terror attack at a sentry post at Galuthi village in Manjakote area of Rajouri district.
Jammu & Kashmir has lately been rattled by a spike in terror attacks.
The death toll in the twin encounters in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday climbed to eight, including six terrorists. The twin encounters began on Saturday in two villages of the district.
The troop density in areas south of the Pir Panjal range has reduced because of forces being pulled out for deployment in the Ladakh sector amid the ongoing standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control, said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General BS Jaswal (retd).
“The terrorists want to exploit the void created by the redeployment of forces. Also, the Jammu region is [recording more terrorist activity] because infiltrators are looking at using ingress routes into the Kashmir valley from this side,” he said.
June also witnessed a jump in terror activity.
On June 26, three terrorists were killed after a gunfight broke out between terrorists and security forces in the Gandoh area of Doda district.
On June 9, armed terrorists attacked a pilgrims’ bus in Reasi that left nine people dead and 42 others injured. The bus was returning from Shiv Khori shrine to Katra.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers took oath on June 9, the Jammu region was rattled by four back-to-back terror attacks in as many days.
The attacks in Reasi, Doda and Kathua districts left nine civilians and a CRPF jawan dead, besides 49 others, including seven security personnel, were injured. The security forces had also killed two terrorists in Kathua.
Terrorists attacked a joint security picket of the police and army in Chattargala area of Bhaderwah adjoining Kathua district on June 11. Five army personnel and a police officer were injured in the attack.
The following day, terrorists attacked a police team and injured a head constable at Kota Top in Gandoh tehsil of Doda district.
Home minister Amit Shah last month directed the administration and security forces in Jammu & Kashmir to adopt similar tactics in Jammu region as they did in Kashmir to contain terrorism.
The Indian Army earlier sent more troops to the Rajouri-Poonch sector in the face of resurgence of terror in the sensitive area. It also reorientated its units operating there, and steps were taken to strengthen the intelligence network for conducting counter-terror operations effectively.
