Day After Killing Of 5 Soldiers, ‘Contact’ Established With Militants Bhangai Rajouri, Say Officials

Poonch, Oct 12: A day after a Junior Commissioned Officer and four soldiers of army were killed, a “contact” has been established with militants in Bhangai Village Of Rajouri.

The area is adjacent to Shahdara near the boundary of Poonch-Rajouri districts were the gunfight started on Monday, officials said.

“Contact has been established with the militants,” Defence ministry spokesman based in Jammu Colonel Devender Anand told GNS.

“On the night of 10 and 11, a counter (militancy) operation was launched by Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police in the area of Shahdara, near the boundary of Poonch-Rajouri districts in J&K. During conduct of the operation, militants brought down heavy volume of fire on to Army troops, leading to fatal injuries to one JCO and four soldiers,” the defence ministry spokesman said.

He identified the killed soldiers as Naib Subedar Jaswinder Singh (Kapurthala Punjab), Naik Mandeep Singh (Gurdaspur, Punjab), and Sepoys Gajjan Singh (Ropar Punjab), Saraj Singh and Vaisakh H (Kudavattoor Kollam Kerala)
After the initial encounter, he said, the militant fled to nearby Bhangai village, which falls in Rajouri district, and the encounter is still in progress. (GNS)