Jammu: Captain among four Army personnel killed in Doda encounter

INTENSE SEARCH FOR TERRORISTS UNDERWAY

In the latest terror attack in the Doda district of Jammu region, four Army personnel, including a captain, died after being injured in a gunfight with heavily armed terrorists, officials said on Tuesday.

Captain Brijesh Thapa from Darjeeling, Naik Dokkari Rajesh from Andhra Pradesh, and Sepoys Bijendra and Ajay Kumar Singh from Rajasthan suffered fatal injuries in the gunfight in the Desa forest area. The Army has rushed reinforcements to track and neutralise the terrorists.

This was the third major encounter between security forces and terrorists in the forests of Doda district in the past three weeks. The terror attack in Doda district comes a week after a terrorist ambush on an Army patrol in the remote Machedi forest belt in Kathua district that claimed the lives of five soldiers and injured as many.

Troops of the Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police launched a joint cordon and search operation at Dhari Gote Urarbagi in the Desa forest belt, some 55 km from Doda town, late on Monday evening when the encounter took place, the officials said.

After a brief exchange of fire, the terrorists tried to escape but were chased by the troops led by the captain despite the challenging terrain and thick foliage, they said, adding this led to another firefight around 9 pm on Monday.

Five soldiers were critically injured in the encounter. Four of them, including the captain, later succumbed to injuries, the officials said.

It is suspected that a group of six to eight militants were involved, including foreign militants— much higher than the number assessed initially.

These militants are believed to be the same group who had fled after attacking the security forces and the police in the district’s Sezan forests on the evening of July 9, sources have said.

Meanwhile, the Kashmir Tigers, a JeM shadow group, has claimed responsibility for the latest attack.