Days after a dastardly terror attack in Pulwama which left over 40 CRPF personnel dead, four Indian Army soldiers were killed in an ongoing gunfight with terrorists in the same district.
The four soldiers include a Major-rank officer. Army has yet to confirm these casualties.
A soldier is reported to have critical wounds during the encounter. The critically-injured soldier has been identified as Sepoy Gulzar Mohammad who has been evacuated to army’s 92 Base Hospital at Srinagar.
A civilian, Mushtaq Ahmad, was injured during the gunfight when large number of stonepelters reached there and clashed with security forces.
The gunfight started late on Sunday evening in Pinglana area of Pulwama after security forces surrounded the village following information of the presence of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists.
“As the cordon was tightened, the holed-up militants fired triggering the gunfight,” police sources said, adding that a search operation is ongoing at the site.
The deaths of the soldiers is the second major loss for security force personnel in the Valley following the 14 February suicide bomb attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama’s Awantipora, which left 44 of the police personnel dead.
It is learnt that at least six JeM terrorists are trapped in encounter in Pinglana. The terrorists include Abdul Rashid Gazi, who had infiltrated from Pakistan two months ago to train terrorists in RDX attacks. Dar had rammed his RDX-laden car into the convoy of CRPF jawans.
Pinglana is about 10 kms from the suicide attack spot.
Security forces involved in the Pinglana operation include 55 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).