Blast during Rajouri Op kills 5 soldiers

Rajouri (Jammu and Kashmir): Five Army personnel were killed and a major injured on Friday in an explosion triggered by terrorists in the thickly forested Kandi area in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district where an operation is underway to flush out terrorists, officials said.

In the morning, two Army men belonging to the Special Forces were killed and four, including the major, injured. Later in the day, three died in a hospital in Udhampur. "In the ongoing operation in Rajouri sector, three soldiers who were critically injured in the morning have unfortunately succumbed to their injuries.

"The operations are still in progress," an Army spokesperson in Udhampur said. Mobile internet facilities in Rajouri area have been suspended. According to a statement from the Army's Northern Command in the morning, its personnel have been conducting "relentless intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an Army truck in the Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in Jammu region last month".

"On specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in the Rajouri Sector, a joint operation was launched on May 3. Around 7.30 am on Friday, a search team established contact with a group of terrorists well entrenched in a cave. The area is thickly vegetated with rocky and steep cliffs. "The terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation. The Army team has suffered two fatal casualties with injuries to four more soldiers, including an officer," the statement said.

It said additional teams from the vicinity have been directed to the site of the encounter and the injured personnel evacuated to the Command Hospital at Udhampur. "There is a likelihood of casualties in the terrorist group and the operation is in progress," it said.