In the ongoing efforts to flush out terrorists in the Jammu region, five Indian Army personnel were killed and one was injured in a blast triggered by the terrorists during an encounter in the Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian. Two soldiers were killed earlier, and three out of the four soldiers who were injured later succumbed to their injuries. Despite the bad weather, the Indian Army has been conducting relentless intelligence-based operations to capture the terrorists.
On May 3, a joint operation was launched based on specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in Rajouri Sector. At around 7:30 am on May 5, a search team established contact with a group of terrorists entrenched in a cave. The area is difficult to access due to thick vegetation, rocky terrain, and cliffs. Additional teams have been directed to the site of the encounter.
This incident follows another tragic attack on April 20, where terrorists ambushed an army truck using steel core bullets and stole the soldiers’ weapons. Five soldiers were killed, and one was injured in the terrorist attack on the lone army truck, which was transporting eatables. The terrorists used grenades and sticky bombs to set the vehicle on fire and steal the soldiers’ arms and ammunition before fleeing the spot. The People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), a lesser-known offshoot of the Jaish-e-Muhammad terror outfit, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In another development related to the Poonch attack, security forces have traced and detained a local named Nisar Ahmad, who provided shelter to the terrorists who killed five army soldiers. The security forces traced Nisar after questioning 50 people detained during the search operation, which entered its sixth day. After sustained interrogation, Nisar Ahmad confessed to sheltering the terrorists for over two months before they attacked the army personnel.