An explosion set off by terrorists during a battle in the heavily forested Kandi Kotranka area of Rajouri district where troops had fought terrorists sheltering in a cave resulted in the deaths of five Army personnel and the injury of a Major (Special Forces), according to officials.
As a part of a big operation to find the men responsible for the April 20 ambush of an Army truck in Poonch that killed five Army personnel, two of the five dead Special Forces soldiers were killed instantly. The People’s Anti-Fascist Front, an offshoot of the Pakistan-backed terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Muhammed, claimed responsibility for the killings as well and uploaded on social media its claim that it had carefully prepared an ambush. “How easy to goad you into ambush sites and kill zones. How predictable your every move,” PAFF said.
How easy to exploit your volatile and over excitable behaviour,” it said, adding, “We threw a bait on April 20 with that ambush to draw you into the jungle… Jungle that we have finely prepared for a long time And you did exactly what we expected you to do!” PAFF had earlier claimed responsibility for the April 20 Poonch ambush.
Official sources said that initially two army men were killed in an explosion set off by the terrorists while four others, including an officer, a Major, were injured. The wounded were immediately evacuated to Command Hospital Udhampur where three soldiers succumbed. “Mobile internet facilities in Rajouri have been suspended as a preventive measure,” official sources said.