Another Army jawan killed, JCO injured in gunfight with militants in J&K's Poonch

SRINAGAR: An Army jawan was killed and a Junior Commissioned Office (JCO) injured in a gunfight with separatist militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier Poonch district on Thursday evening. Five soldiers including a JCO had lost their lives in a similar clash in the district earlier this week.

The Army and police sources said that the latest encounter between a group of militants and the security forces took place in Bhata Dhurian village near Bhimber Gali area of Poonch, not far from the Line of Control (LoC).

The place of occurrence, the sources said, is part of the forest area that runs through Dehra Ki Gali one of the major counterinsurgency operations of the year was launched October 11 after the Army men had come under the attack.

The sources said that the fighting at Bhata Dhurian broke out after the Army along with the counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) of the J&K police mounted an operation to conduct intensive searches. The vehicular traffic along the Jammu-Poonch highway has been stopped near Mendhar town, a report said.

A defence spokesman had said in Jammu earlier, “In an ongoing counter terrorism operation in general area Nar Khas Forest, Mendhar Sub Division, District Poonch there has been exchange of fire between Army troops and terrorists during evening hours on Thursday. In the ensuing exchange of fire one JCO and one soldier have been critically injured. The operations are under progress.”

Meanwhile, an Army jawan on Thursday reportedly shot himself dead with his service rifle at the Kralapora Army camp in frontier Kupwara district. He has been identified as Sepoy Deeraj Kumar of the Engineering Unit.

The sources said that the soldier was critically injured in the act following which he was first admitted to the military hospital at nearby Drugmulla and then airlifted to the Command Hospital in garrison town of Udhampur where he succumbed to his injuries.