Poonch, Oct 11: After a brief lull and intermittent firing, a gun battle in Jammu Region’s Poonch District that claimed lives of five soldiers on Monday, stretched deep into forested areas of Rajouri district as the security forces managed to establish fresh contact with the hiding terrorists.
One Junior Commissioned Officer and four army jawans were martyred as heavy firing ensued a cordon and search operation in villages close to Dera Ki Gali area.
“The encounter that started between security forces and terrorists in Chamrer forest area of Surankote has now spread to Bhangai village of Rajouri,” official sources said.
They said the present location, where the firing has started, is adjacent to the earlier site and it is a forest area.
Earlier, a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and four soldiers were killed on Monday in an encounter between security forces and heavily armed terrorists in Surankote area of Poonch district in Jammu Region.
“The operation is on and there are reports that one JCO and four jawans of Army have been killed in the exchange of fire,” official sources said.
The gunfight started in the morning following intelligence inputs as the Indian Army launched a cordon and search operation in villages close to Dera Ki Gali area.
“Exchange of fire is still underway,” the defence spokesperson said.
Police sources said four to five terrorists were trapped. “The terrorists fired at the joint patrol party, which was effectively retaliated leading to the encounter,” he said.
They said that the entire operation area is the same, but it’s the border of Rajouri-Poonch districts, adding, “fresh contact got established and intermittent firing is going on”.
The JCO martyred in the gun battle was identified as Naib Subedar Jaswinder Singh from Punjab, while the other soldiers Mandeep Singh, Gajjan Singh, Saraj Singh (also from Punjab) and Vaisakh H. (from Kerala).
