Rajourii{J-K}: Officials in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district stated that five Army personnel were killed and a major was injured on Friday in an explosion set off by militants in the densely forested Kandi area.
Two Special Forces soldiers were killed and four others, including the major, were injured this morning. Three of them passed away later that day at an Udhampur hospital.
Three troops who were badly injured during the ongoing operation in the Rajouri sector this morning have passed away from their wounds. An Army spokesman in Udhampur said, "The operations are still in progress."
The Rajouri area has lost access to mobile internet. There has been an ambush on an Army truck in the Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in the Jammu region, and the Army's Northern Command has released a statement saying that its forces have been undertaking "relentless intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an Army truck last month."
A coordinated operation was initiated on May 3 in response to credible intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in the Rajouri Sector. Contact with a gang of terrorists holed up in a cave was made at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Friday. The area is heavily wooded and has high, rocky cliffs
The terrorists retaliated by setting off an explosive device. Two members of the Army team have been killed, and four others, including an officer, have been injured, according to the statement.
They claimed the injured men were taken to the Command Hospital in Udhampur and that more teams from the area had been sent to the location of the encounter.
"The operation is underway, and casualties among the terrorist group are likely," it said.—Inputs from Agenciies