SRINAGAR: Four soldiers were killed and three others injured after militants ambushed two army vehicles at Dera ki Gali (DKG) in the border district of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday around 4 pm.
Army sources said the militants fired at the army vehicles indiscriminately using automatic weapons. “The fire was returned by the troops. In the militant attack, four soldiers were killed and three injured,” an official said.
According to the Army official, the soldiers were moving towards the DKG area, where troops had launched an intelligence based operation on Wednesday evening. “The troops were going to reinforce the joint operation when they were ambushed by the militants,” he said.
Immediately after the attack, the joint contingent of Army and police rushed to the area and launched a massive search operation to track down the militants responsible for the ambush. Army used helicopters, quadcopters and sniffer dogs during the search operation to track down the location of militants to pinpoint them. Para-commandos also joined the operation to assist the troops on the ground.
This is the second major encounter in the border district of Rajouri within a month. On November 23, five soldiers and two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants including a Pakistani national were killed in a two-day long encounter.