5 soldiers killed during counter-terrorism operation in J&K

At least five army personnel, including a junior commissioned officer (JCO), were killed in action during a counter-terrorist operation in the Rajouri sector of J&K's Pir Panjal range on Monday, sources say.

Jammu:Five army personnel, including a junior commissioner officer (JCO), were killed in a shootout with militants in villages near Dera Ki Gali in the Surankot area of Poonch district, on Monday morning. The incident was confirmed by the Defense Ministry's Jammu-based PRO. The clashes erupted when the army launched a siege and search operation in the area.

Officers killed in the counter-attack have been identified as Naib Subedar Jaswinder Singh of Kapurthala, Punjab, Gurdaspur Siraha resident Nayak Mandeep Singh, Gajjan Singh of Punjab's Jhaj Ropar, Saraj Singh from Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur and Kerala's Kudavattam resident Vaisakh.

Earlier in the day, an encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists on Monday morning in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, Defence Public Relations Officer (PRO) stated, adding that a cordon and search operation was launched in villages close to Dera Ki Gali (DKG) in Surankote jurisdiction of the district.

"Based on intelligence inputs, the Indian Army launched a cordon and search operation in villages close to DKG in Surankote jurisdiction of Poonch district of J-K today morning. The encounter with terrorists is going on," the Defence PRO said, adding that the hiding ultras opened heavy fire on the search parties.

Officials said that there are reports about the presence of a group of heavily-armed terrorists in the Chamrer forest after they managed to sneak from across the Line of Control (LoC). Reinforcements have been rushed to the area to plug all escape routes of the terrorists, they further added.

Similarly, another encounter took place wherein two militants were killed and a policeman was injured in two different encounters at Khagund Verinag area in Anantnag district and at Shahgund in Bandipora of Jammu and Kashmir, according to police.

The firefight between militants and security forces took place after a joint team of the police and the security forces cordoned off the Khagund Verinag area and launched a search operation on a tip-off about the presence of militants. As the security forces zeroed in on the spot where militants were hiding they came under a heavy volume of fire that triggered the encounter.

At Gundjahangir in Bandipora district, the militant, who was killed in the encounter, was identified as Imtiyaz Ahmad Dar affiliated with proscribed terror outfit LeT (TRF) and was involved in the recent civilian killing at Shahgund Bandipora, disclosed IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar.