BUNTY MAHAJAN
JAMMU, OCTOBER 11
A Junior Commissioned Officer and four jawans were martyred on Monday morning in an encounter with a group of heavily armed militants in the dense forests of Chamred near Dehra Ki Gali on the Mughal Road in Jammu and Kashmir’s border Poonch district.
AnArmy PRO Lt Colonel Devender Anand said that the JCO and the four jawans got critically injured in fire fight with militants. They were immediately evacuated to the hospital, but they succumbed to their injuries, he added.
They have been identified as Naib Subedar Jaswinder Singh of Punjab’s Mana Talwandi in Kapurthala district, Naik Mandeep Singh of Chalha village in Gurdaspur district, Sepoy Gajjan Singh of Pancharanda illage in Ropar district, besides sepoy Saraj Singh of Uttar Pradesh’s Akhtyarpur Dhavkal in Shahjahanpur district, and Sepoy Vaisakh H of Kerala’s Odanavattam village in Kollam district.
The operation was in progress, he said, adding that it has now spread to adjoining Rajouri district’s Pangai area as the militants have now fled there.
The militants, believed to be in 4 – 5 in numbers, according to sources, appear to be part of a group who infiltrated into the Union Territory from across the Line of Control in August this year and was intercepted by police and security forces in Pangai area of Rajouri district’s Thanamandi area along the Mughal Road on August this year. While two militants were killed on August 6 and another on August 19 there, the other members of the group may be roaming around in the forests there as they were unable to reach Shopian, they added.
Giving details about the present operation, a senior official said that the police and security forces had launched search and combing operation in the area from the side of Poonch’s Buffliaz and Rajouri’s Thanamandi since Sunday night following inputs about the presence of militants in forests at Dehra Ki Gali, which falls at the centre of both the hilly border districts. The deceased soldiers were part of the one of the advance search parties who were suddenly fired upon by militants hiding inside the highly dense forests, he added.
More reinforcements from security forces and police have rushed to the area to ensure that militants are not able to escape from there.
The 80 km Mughal road connects Poonch district in Jammu division with Shopian in Kashmir.