One terrorist killed, another likely injured as Op Trinetra continues in J&K's Rajouri

Recoveries made so far include one AK56, four Mags of AK, 56 rounds of AK, 1 x 9mm Pistol with Mag, three grenades and an ammunition pouch.

One terrorist was neutralised and another was likely injured in a fresh exchange of fire with security forces during the ongoing encounter in the Kandi forest area of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday morning. The contact was established with the terrorists at around 1.15am, resulting in an exchange of fire when terrorists attempted to escape the cordon. At around 5am, the cordon was readjusted and the gunbattle continued, according to Army officials.

Two separate encounters are underway between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri and Baramulla on Saturday. (ANI Photo) (ANI)

Defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said that the cordon, while closing in, spotted and pinned down the terrorists.

“In the ensuing gunbattle one terrorist has been neutralised and one terrorist is likely to be injured,” he added.

With an encounter between security forces and terrorists already underway in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri, a terrorist was killed in a separate encounter that broke out on Saturday in Baramulla. Kashmir Zone police said the encounter started at the Karhama Kunzer area of Baramulla.

"We had received information from a reliable source about some suspicious movement in Karhama village under Kunzer police station limits. A cordon and search operation was launched by joint parties of Baramulla police, the Indian Army and CRPF. During the operation, the search parties were fired upon and in retaliatory firing one terrorist of LeT has been killed," SSP Baramulla, Amod Ashok Nagpure, told ANI.

“Our forces are alert in view of the G20 Summit and we are neutralising the threat & G20 Summit will be organised successfully,” he added.

Meanwhile, the counter-terror operation in the Kandi forest in Rajouri, in which five soldiers have been killed in action, is currently underway. The contact with terrorists was established at 1.15am on Saturday and the firing was exchanged, defence spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said.

Five Indian soldiers were killed and an officer was wounded in a terror ambush in the Kandi forest area on Friday morning.

"Three more soldiers who were injured earlier have unfortunately succumbed to their injuries. A total of five soldiers have lost their lives in the joint operation in Rajouri, J&K," said the officials.

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.

Indian Army is 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, an official release stated.

"On specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in the Rajouri Sector, a joint operation was launched on May 3, 2023. At about 7:30 am on May 5, 2023, 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," the official release stated.