SRINAGAR: Three Army jawans were killed and as many injured in a gunbattle with a group of heavily-armed militants after they ambushed two Army vehicles -- a Gypsy and a 1-ton truck -- in the Dera ki Gali area of J&K’s border district of Poonch on Thursday afternoon. Other reports put the death toll as four.
The Army said the terrorists, after attacking its vehicles, quickly engaged in a gunbattle which continued as reports last came in. Security forces’ reinforcements laid siege to a vast area of the Poonch-Rajouri border districts and had plugged possible escape routes for the militants, police sources said.
A defence spokesman in Jammu said the Army with the J&K police and the CRPF was conducting an operation against terrorists at Dera Ki Gali in the Thanamandi area since Wednesday evening. “The operation was launched on hard intelligence about the presence of terrorists in the general area of Dera ki Gali,” he said.
The spokesman added: “Today (Thursday) at around 3.45 pm, two Army vehicles carrying troops to the operation site to reinforce the joint operation were ambushed by terrorists at Dera ki Gali. The fire was retaliated to. However, in the exchange of fire, three soldiers got killed, while three were injured. The operation is in progress and further details are being ascertained,” he said.
Local news agencies GNS and KNO reported four Army jawans identified as B. Singh, K. Kumar, C. Kumar and G. Kumar were killed in the ambush and gunfight while the injured are Sundeep Kumar, S.S. Dass and T.D. Bhaskarrav. However, the Army only confirmed three deaths.
A statement issued by the Army at Nagrota (Jammu) said: “At approximately 3.45 pm on December 21, two Army vehicles carrying troops were moving to the operational site, which were fired upon by the terrorists. The fire was immediately retaliated upon by own troops. In the ongoing operation, own troops sustained 3 fatal and 3 non-fatal casualties.”
The police sources said the attackers believed to be Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) cadres -- most probably Pakistani nationals -- targeted a truck and a Gypsy of the Indian Army at Dhatyar Morh between Dera ki Gali and Bufliaz under the jurisdiction of the Surankote police station of Poonch.
A report from neighbouring Rajouri district said that the reinforcements from the Army, J&K police and the CRPF have been rushed to the area to take on the fleeing militants. The Thannamandi-Dera ki Gali-Bufliaz road has been closed and vehicular traffic to Srinagar (via Mughal Road) and Poonch has been diverted. “Since an encounter is underway in the Dera ki Gali area, all are informed to use BG-Jara Wali Gali road to travel to Srinagar or Poonch,” a traffic police spokesman said.
Police officials said the attack on the Army vehicles had taken place in the same area where five Army personnel -- Naib Subedar Jaswinder Singh, Naik Mandeep Singh and Sepoys Gajjan Singh, Vaishakh H and Saraj Singh -- were killed in an attack by militants on October 11.
During this operation, two more Army soldiers including a JCO, Subedar Ajay Singh, and Naik Harendra Singh lost their lives on October 16. The duo had earlier gone missing during the massive search operation that was carried out jointly by the Army and J&K police’s Special Operations Group in the Naar Khas Forest area of Poonch’s Mendhar region.
