In one of the deadliest attacks, coinciding with the meeting of Foreign Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation organisation (SCO), five elite commandos of Para Special forces were “killed in action” by a well entrenched group of heavily armed terrorists, possibly trained in guerilla warfare, in the thickly forested belt of Kotranka in the frontier district of Rajouri on Friday.
One of the senior Army officers, who received critical injuries during an explosion triggered by the terrorists, was airlifted and is undergoing specialised treatment at a military command hospital in Udhampur. His condition is stated to be “stable” till the time of filing the report.
Earlier, on April 20, five Indian soldiers were killed in action after a group of terrorists ambushed an Army truck in Bhatta Durrian area of Poonch. It is suspected the same group of foreign terrorists, hiding in the thickly forested areas of Rajouri and Poonch, were behind the deadly attack.
It is after a gap of almost three long years that the elite para commandos suffered heavy casualties during counter-terrorism operations in Jammu & Kashmir.
A group of five commandos were martyred in the Keran sector of Kupwara on April 5, 2020 while foiling a major infiltration bid. Five terrorists were neutralised in the hand to hand combat by the elite commandos. Similarly, on February 22, 2016, two officers of the Para Unit along with one para commando had attained martyrdom while neutralising holed up terrorists inside
the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) in Pampore.
According to the ground reports the group of terrorists vanished inside the deep forests after triggering an explosion thereby causing heavy army casualties.
Additional reinforcements were rushed to the area to launch a massive manhunt to track down the footprints of the terrorists. Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh along with Additional DGP Mukesh Singh, visited the thick forest belt during the day long operations in the area.
Meanwhile, in a written statement Indian Army said, “Indian Army columns have been conducting relentless intelligence based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an army truck in Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in Jammu region on April 20”. Five Indian soldiers had sacrificed their lives in the terror attack.
According to a statement of the Indian Army, “ a joint operation was launched on May 3, 2023 on the basis of specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest belt in Rajouri sector. At about 7.30 am on May 5, 2023, a search team established contact with a group of terrorists well entrenched in a cave. The area is thickly vegetated with rocky and steep cliffs. The terrorists triggered an explosive device in retaliation. The Army team has suffered two fatal casualties with injuries to four more soldiers including an officer”.
Later in the day, a Defence spokesman in Jammu confirmed out of four injured soldiers, three of them succumbed to their injuries in the command hospital, Udhampur.
List of Martyred soldiers
1. L/Nk Ruchin Singh Rawat
S/O Sh. Rajendra Singh
Village- Kunigad
Teh Gairsain, Uttrakhand
2. Paratrooper Siddhant Chettri
S/O Sh. Kharka Bahdur
PO Pulbazar
District - Darjeeling, (WB)
3. Nk Arvind Kumar
S/O Sh Ujwaal Singh
Village- Suri(Chatiala),
PO - Marhoon
Tehsil - Palampur, District- Kangra (H.P)
4. Hav Neelam Singh
S/O Shri Gurdev Singh
Village- Dalpat,
PO Jourian, Akhnoor
District -Jammu (J&K)
5. Paratrooper Pramod Negi
S/O Sh Devinder Singh Negi
Village - Shillai,
District -Sirmaur (H.P)
