J&K: Suspected Dhangri village attacker killed as Rajnath visits to take stock

The militant was killed in the dense Kandi forest, the site of Friday’s IED blast, during a security operation to hunt down militants who had attacked an Army truck in Poonch district last month.

While the Army’s public relations officer, Lt Col Devender Anand, said the militant’s identity had not been ascertained, sources said Bathuni village residents had identified him as being part of the Upper Dangri group that was active in the area and who had visited some of them for food. Another militant was likely injured in the exchange of fire on Saturday, the Army PRO said.

Seven civilians were killed and 14 were injured in the twin attacks at Upper Dangri village in Rajouri on January 1-2 this year. And five soldiers were killed in the attack on the Army truck in Poonch’s Bhatta Durian on April 20.

Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande accompanied the Defence Minister during the visit to the Army’s Divisional Headquarters in Rajouri. There, Northern Army Commander Lt General Upendra Dwivedi briefed them on Operation Trinetra, launched by the Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and CRPF. Lt General Dwivedi also briefed them on the situation along the Line of Control and in Poonch and Rajouri districts.

Officials said the Defence Minister chaired a meeting to review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Rajnath and the Army chief also interacted with officers and jawans before flying back to the capital.

Rajnath tweeted: “Visited the Army Base Camp in Rajouri, J&K today, Reviewed the operational capabilities and security situation along the border. Also interaction with the brave soldiers of the Indian Army. India salutes their devotion towards protecting our motherland”.

Earlier in the day, Lt General Dwivedi went to the operation site near Kandi, where contact was re-established with militants at around 1.15 am.

Meanwhile, sources said the five paratroopers who died Friday had been deployed in Kandi after security forces traced the location of militants by intercepting a satellite phone signal.

The sources said that paratroopers, being a specialised force, are usually not a part of such cordon-and-search operations. It was when they arrived at the identified location that militants triggered the IED blast, inflicting casualties.

Army PRO Lt Colonel Anand said an AK-56 rifle along with four magazines and 56 rounds, a 9 mm pistol with a magazine, three grenades and an ammunition pouch were found on the slain militant.

The combing operation is still in progress, with troops moving with caution in the densely forested and hilly area.

Ever since militants attacked an Army truck in Poonch’s Bhatta Durian on April 20, security forces along with police and CRPF have launched cordon-and-search operations on a massive scale. More than 250 people have been questioned during the operation while six have been arrested for providing logistics support to the militants, suspected to have been in the area for over two months.

Earlier, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Lt General Dwivedi paid homage to the slain soldiers in a wreath-laying ceremony.

Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu have been rocked by a series of deadly attacks since October 2021.

In two major incidents in Rajouri in 2022, five army personnel and two terrorists were killed in a suicide attack at a security camp at Pargal-Darhal on August 11, while two civilians were killed in a firing incident outside an army camp near Rajouri town.

Besides the eight major attacks, four minor blasts rocked Kotranka in Rajouri district between March and April last year.

Nine army personnel were killed in two separate encounters with terrorists in Bhatta Durian of Poonch district in October 2021.

Two army personnel, one of them a lieutenant, were killed in a mine blast in Nowshera sector of Rajouri on October 30, 2021.