Five personnel of the Indian Air Force were hurt, with one of them succumbing to his injuries at a hospital later, as armed terrorists ambushed an IAF convoy at Lassana Top in Surankote tehsil of Poonch district on Saturday, officials said.
The attack happened at around 6.15pm when two IAF vehicles were returning to their station Shahsitar from Jarawali and they came under attack. The armed terrorists opened indiscriminate fire before fleeing the spot, officials aware of the matter said.
Reinforcements were rushed to the area where counter-terror operations were launched. The local Rashtriya Rifles unit started cordon and search operations in the area, the officials said.
“An Indian Air Force vehicle convoy was attacked by militants in the Poonch district of J&K, near Shahsitar. Cordon and search operations are underway presently in the area by local military units. The convoy has been secured, and further investigation is under progress,” the IAF said in a post on X.
While the vehicles have been also secured inside the air base in the general area near Shahsitar, the injured personnel were rushed to the hospital, where one of them succumbed to his injuries.
“In the ensuing gunfight with terrorists, the Air Warriors fought back by returning fire. In the process, five IAF personnel received bullet injuries, and were evacuated to the nearest military hospital for immediate medical attention. One Air Warrior succumbed to his injuries later,” the IAF post said. “Further operations are on by the local security forces.”
One of the trucks in the IAF convoy bore the maximum brunt of the attack with several bullets piercing its windscreen and side. The terrorists, who were armed with AK assault rifles, are believed to have fled into the nearby forests, the officials said.
Police assisted by paramilitary forces had been carrying out searches in Poonch town since Friday following inputs about the movement of suspected persons. However, no one was arrested during the operation, the officials said.
Officials cited above said that the ambush bore similarities with the April 2023 ambush when terrorists shot dead five soldiers.
“Saturday evening’s attack was a replica of Tota Gali ambush in Poonch district of April 20, 2023 when armed terrorists ambushed an army vehicle and shot dead five soldiers,” the officials said.
“The area has dense forests and the road meanders along the serpentine hills. Besides, an IAF station, the army also has a camp there. The attackers, it seems, used dense forest and undulating terrain to their advantage to ambush the vehicles,” the officials said.
The attack has come days before Poonch goes to the polls on May 25 as part of the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency. The polling for the constituency was rescheduled by the Election Commission April 30 after leaders across the political divide sought rescheduling due to adverse weather conditions.
The Election Commission had asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to immediately submit a detailed report on road conditions, weather and accessibility to the region which covers parts of South Kashmir and areas in Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu region.
The polling was initially scheduled to be held on May 7, in the third phase of the seven-phase elections.
The Jammu and Kashmir Congress condemned Saturday’s attack. In a statement, Pradesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani said the repeated terror attacks on the forces need to be responded to strongly and underlined the need to check the rise in terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We condemn the terror attack on the IAF personnel… We express our grave concern over the escalated attacks by terrorists in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir, especially in Rajouri-Poonch belt, resulting in loss of several precious lives of our jawans and officers,” Wani said.
The border district of Poonch along with adjoining Rajouri has witnessed some major terrorist attacks over the past two.
The latest incident in the Pir Panjal region follows the killing of government employee Mohd Razaq, brother of an Army personnel, by terrorists in Rajouri’s Kunda Top on April 22 and village defence guard Mohd Sharief in the Basantgarh area of Udhampur on April 28.
Police have released pictures of two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists, including suspected Pakistani national Abu Hamza, involved in the murder of Razaq and announced a cash reward of ₹10 lakh for information leading to his arrest.
The Bufliaz ambush in December last year came weeks after a major gunfight in the Dharmsal belt of Bajimaal forest in Rajouri that left five Army personnel, including two captains, dead.
Two terrorists, including top LeT commander Quari, were also killed in the two-day gunfight. Quari was said to be the mastermind behind several attacks, including the killing of 10 civilians and five Army personnel in the district.
The stretch between Dhera Ki Gali and Bufliaz on the boundary of Rajouri and Poonch is densely forested and leads to Chamrer forest and then Bhata Dhurian forest, where five soldiers were killed in an ambush attack on an Army vehicle on April 20 last year.
In May last year, five more Army personnel were killed and a major-rank officer was injured in Chamrer forest during an anti-terrorist operation. A foreign terrorist was also killed in the operation.
In 2022, five Army personnel were killed when terrorists carried out a suicide attack on their camp at Pargal in the Darhal area of Rajouri district. Both the terrorists involved in the attack were eliminated.
In 2021, nine soldiers were killed in two attacks by terrorists in the forested region. While five Army personnel, including a junior commissioned officer (JCO), were killed on October 11 in Chamrer, a JCO and three soldiers were killed on October 14 in a nearby forest.