Third Terror Attack in J&K Since Oct. 20

Jammu: One of the terrorists involved in a sneak attack on an ambulance that was part of an Army convoy was on Monday gunned down by the security forces in a “swift and meticulous” counteroffensive in the Akhnoor area close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Jammu district, officials said. “The body of one terrorist along with a weapon has been recovered. Operations are under progress,” Army’s Nagrota (Jammu)-based 16 Corps -also called White Knight Corps- said in a post on ‘X’

A defence spokesman here said that the terrorists fired upon the Army convoy near Asan in the Sunderbani sector of the LoC on Monday morning. “A swift retaliation by own troops foiled the attempt and thereby ensured no injuries were inflicted on anyone on board,” he said, adding that the area was quickly cordoned off, and a search operation to neutralize the terrorists was launched. This was the second such attack on an Army convoy in J&K in the past week.

On the evening of October 2, a group of militants targeted a small Army convoy with automatic weapons near its Nigeen Post in Gulmarg’s Botapathri area close to the LoC in the Kashmir Valley’s Baramulla district. In this attack, five people including three soldiers and two civilian porters were killed, and three other soldiers were injured. Earlier on October 20, a local doctor and six construction workers-both local and non-local- were killed and several others injured in a terror attack at Gagangir along the Srinagar-Ladakh highway in the Valley’s Ganderbal district.

The police sources here said that in the latest incident the gunmen, believed to be the part of a fresh group of infiltrating militants, attacked the Army ambulance at a place called Jogwan. The ambulance was hit by over a dozen bullets and those on board had a close shave with death, the sources said, adding that after targeting the Army ambulance, the assailants fled into nearby woods in the face of a strong retaliation by the troops.

“Soon the Army troops joined by the J&K police laid siege to the area and started searches during which contact was established with the terrorists hiding in the Bhattal forest area,” the sources said, adding that in the ensuing encounter one of the three to four three terrorists has been killed in the ongoing operation.

The sources said that Additional DGP (Jammu range) Anand Jain had on Sunday held a meeting with the SSPs and SPs of the region’s border districts to review the security situation in the backdrop of back-to-back terror attacks in the Kashmir Valley. As decided at this meeting, a high alert was sounded for these districts- Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Poonch, and Rajouri.

The local sources said that the militants who were believed to have infiltrated into the Jammu district from across the LoC had at around 7 am on Monday entered a temple (Asan Mandir) at Jowan and were desperately looking for a mobile phone to make a call. When they saw an Army convoy passing by, they opened fire hitting the ambulance that was a part of it.