Army truck ambushed in J&K's Poonch district; 3 personnel killed
Terrorists opened fire on an Indian Army truck transporting jawans in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch area on Thursday. Three Army personnel were killed while three others were injured. The incident took place at Dera Ki Gali (DKG) in the Surankote area of Poonch. They were on their way to reinforce a joint operation against terrorists that had been underway in the area since Wednesday. This marks the second attack on the military in the region in less than a month.
Area has been cordoned off
Two vehicles, including a gypsy and a mini truck, were reportedly on their way from Bufliaz in Surankote to Thanamandi in Rajouri, where the 48 Rashtriya Rifles headquarters are located. As the vehicles approached Topa Pir, terrorists, who appeared to have already planned an ambush, attacked them. The area has been cordoned off by the Army.
Operations are taking place in the 48 Rashtriya Rifles area
Rajouri-Poonch region becoming hub for terrorist activities
The Rajouri-Poonch region has increasingly become a hub for terrorist activities and major attacks on the Army in recent years. Ten soldiers were killed in twin attacks in the area between April and May of this year. Interestingly, this region experienced a lull in terrorist activity from 2003 to 2021, but frequent encounters have since resumed. In the past two years alone, over 35 soldiers have lost their lives during anti-terror operations in the area.
5 soldiers, including 2 captains, killed last month
In a similar incident last month, five soldiers, including two captains, were killed in a two-day anti-terror operation launched by the army and its special forces in Rajouri's Kalakote. A Jammu-based defense spokesman said joint operations in the Kalakote area's Gulabgarh forest were initiated on November 19 in response to "specific intelligence" concerning the presence of terrorists. Two terrorists, including a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander trained in Afghanistan, were also killed in the incident.
