Five Army personnel were killed after militants allegedly triggered an explosive device following an encounter with security forces in the forests of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district on Friday morning.
Initially, authorities said that two soldiers had died in the blast. The Army later said that three more personnel succumbed to their injuries.
Following the incident at Kesari area of Kandi hamlet, mobile internet services were suspended in Rajouri.
The Army’s Northern Command said that its personnel were conducting intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of militants who were involved in an ambush on an Army truck on April 20 in which at least five soldiers were killed.
“On specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in the Rajouri Sector, a joint operation was launched on May 3…Around 7.30 am on Friday, a search team established contact with a group of terrorists well entrenched in a cave,” the Army said.
The Northern Command said that the militants then triggered an explosive device, which left five Army personnel dead.
