New Delhi: A group of terrorists attacked two Indian Army vehicles in an ambush in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, December 21, 2023, killing five soldiers and injuring two others. The Indian Army retaliated and launched a joint search operation to track down the terrorists.
The attack took place in the Dhera Ki Gali area of Poonch district, where the soldiers were moving based on strong intelligence inputs. The terrorists intercepted a truck and a gypsy carrying the soldiers and opened fire indiscriminately. The soldiers fought back bravely, but five of them succumbed to their injuries and two were wounded.
The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its offshoot People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it “revenge” for the recent killings of their commanders by the Indian security forces.
A video released by the news agency ANI showed the aftermath of the attack, where blood, broken helmets, and glasses of the army vehicles were seen on the road. The video also showed the security personnel cordoning off the area and searching for the terrorists. Officials said that there was a possibility of a close encounter between the soldiers and the terrorists during the exchange of fire.
Sources also said that the terrorists might have snatched some weapons from the slain soldiers. The officials said that they were trying to gather more information and eliminate the threat posed by the terrorists in the area.
This was the second major attack on the Indian Army in the region in the past few weeks. On November 30, 2023, five army personnel, including two captains, were killed in a gunfight with terrorists in the Dharamsal belt of the Bajimal forest area in the nearby Rajouri district. The Indian Army had said that it had inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists in that operation.
