Fresh encounter in Doda as hunt on to track militants who ambushed convoy

Five soldiers were killed and five injured when militants ambushed a convoy of two Army trucks in Kathua district on Monday afternoon. Sources said security forces are combing through dense forests in Badnota area to track down the militants.

The distance between Kathua’s Badnota village, where Monday’s attack took place, and the Sezan forest is around 168 km.

Ground troops conducting the searches in Kathua are being supported by helicopter and drone surveillance, and the Army has also moved in Para commandos to the area. The J&K Police has also deployed its Special Operations Group, which primarily deals with anti-terror operations.

However, the militants, who had fled shortly after the ambush, remained elusive, officials said.

Security forces believe the militants could not have gone far given the dense fog and heavy rain on Monday evening, and search parties have started looking into isolated houses built on the periphery of the forests. Nearly half-a-dozen people have also been picked up for questioning.

Sources said the militants had simultaneously attacked two Army vehicles carrying soldiers and rations, first by hurling grenades and then opening fire from automatic assault rifles. Both trucks, which had come from the Machedi side, were on their way to Lohai Malhar and were on a small bridge over a nullah at the time.

Sources said both trucks were targeted together so soldiers from one couldn’t rush to help the others. The militants, sources said, used steel core bullets to ensure those inside the trucks got hit.

According to sources, the soldiers, despite coming under heavy fire and suffering injuries, retaliated, forcing the militants to flee into the forests. Reinforcements from Machedi, which is nearly 25 kilometres away, took time to reach the encounter site because of the road condition, sources said.

The five soldiers killed on Monday have been identified as Naib Subedar Anand Singh, Havildar Kamal Singh, Naik Vinod Singh, and Riflemen Anuj Negi and Adarsh Negi.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has, meanwhile, sent a team to Kathua to extend support to the J&K Police in its investigation. Officials made it clear that the probe agency has not registered a case to investigate the attack.

Uptick in violence

The uptick in terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir comes after the security establishment received inputs of a successful infiltration by a large group around two months ago. According to defence sources, given the nature of the attacks, the involvement of highly trained and motivated militants is suspected.