Hours after a junior commissioned officer (JCO) and four soldiers of the Indian Army were killed in an exchange of fire with heavily armed terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Monday, another encounter started nearby, according to news agency ANI. The news agency reported that an army personnel was injured in the latest encounter around 2km from the site of the earlier gunfight.

The JCO and the four soldiers were killed in a forested area in Surankote during an anti-insurgency operation. According to defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand, the operation was launched early on Monday in a village in Dehra Ki Gali (DKG) area after the army received intelligence input about the presence of terrorists. 

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Anand said that the insurgents opened fire on its personnel during the cordon-and-search operation initiated by the army. The JCO and the four soldiers were critically injured in the gunfight and were evacuated to the nearest medical facility but they succumbed to their injuries.

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Officials said earlier that there are reports about the presence of a group of heavily armed terrorists in the Chamrer forest after they managed to sneak from across the Line of Control (LoC). They added that reinforcements have been rushed to the area to plug all escape routes to ensure the terrorists are nabbed. The fresh casualties come after a series of targeted attacks left seven civilians dead in the Kashmir Valley this month.

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Meanwhile, the Congress’ Jammu and Kashmir unit expressed grief over the killing of the five army personnel and urged the BJP-led government to take effective measures to contain Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the Union territory. J-K Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president GA Mir and other senior party leaders described the attack on the Indian Army as a “cowardly act” and the party expressed serious concern over the rising incidents of terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

(With agency inputs)