Four soldiers killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch terror ambush

At least four soldiers were killed and three were injured when a group of terrorists ambushed two Indian Army vehicles in the Rajouri district of Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday, officials said.

The vehicles were navigating a blind curve at a spot known as Dhatyar Morh between Dera ki Gali (DKG) area and Bulfiaz when they came under heavy fire. They were carrying personnel to an active operation to nab terrorists at the DKG area, a few kilometres away.

“An operation was being conducted in general area DKG since the night of Wednesday. At approximately 3:45pm on Thursday, two army vehicles carrying troops to the operational site were fired upon by the terrorists. The fire was immediately retaliated upon by army troops,” said defence spokesperson Lt Col Suneel Bartwal.

The personnel belonged to the army’s 48 Rashtriya Rifles (48RR) unit.

“However, in the ongoing operation, our own troops sustained three fatal (killed in action) and three non fatal (injured) casualties,” he said. An army spokesperson later updated the toll to four, and it was not immediately clear if the fourth death was that of one of the three who had been hurt.

Colonel Bartwal said the operation was in progress and further details were being ascertained. At the time of going to print, the army had not disclosed identities or ranks of the dead or injured.

Thursday’s attack was sixth since October 2021 in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, south of Pir Panjal. In the six attacks, 29 army personnel have lost their lives, including two captains and two JCOs.

While the area involved in Thursday’s incident was not as close to the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan as some of the other spots where the six attacks took place, intelligence officials aware of the matter said it was still a treacherous region.

“The terrain is hilly with dense jungles. The terrorists, it seems, ambushed the two vehicles with indiscriminate fire. The Gypsy that was leading the truck bore maximum brunt of the firing. The terrorists fled the spot after targeting the two vehicles,” said an intelligence officer, asking not to be named.

The operation at DKG that began on Wednesday, this person added, was launched following “hard intelligence” about the presence of terrorists in the area.

People familiar with the matter said immediately after the attack, ambulances and reinforcements of 48RR and 43 RR were rushed to the site. “Public movement in the area has been restricted,” the officer quoted above added.

Images and videos taken in the aftermath showed the green army SUV (a Maruti Gypsy) riddled with bullets and its windows shattered, with rifle cartridges and blood visible on the ground.

In May, five commandos of the para special forces were killed in an IED blast triggered by terrorists at Kandi forests in Rajouri. The previous month, five military personnel were killed when they were in a truck ambushed by terrorists in Tota Gali in Poonch — an attack that was similar to Thursday’s.