Jammu and Kashmir: Two jawans killed in attack by Pakistan’s Border Action Team in Poonch
Two militants were also killed as the Indian Army foiled an attempt to allegedly violate the ceasefire.
Two jawans were killed in an exchange of fire along the Line of Control in Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Thursday when the Indian Army was fighting Pakistan’s Border Action Team, which had allegedly violated the ceasefire, ANI reported. Two of the three BAT members who had tried to intrude were also killed in the encounter.
The intruders attacked Army posts along LoC at around 2 pm on Thursday. The Army said a BAT team comprising five to seven members were 600 metres within India, reported Hinudstan Times. The slain soldiers were identified as Naik Sandip Jadhav and Sepoy Savan Mane.
“While the firefight was going on, Pakistani posts engaged our posts by heavy firing. In the firefight, our two jawans have been martyred,” the Indian Army said in a statement, according to NDTV, adding that the exchange of fire is still on.
The BAT team usually comprises personnel from the Pakistani Army and some militants trained for cross border operations. This is the third such BAT attack in the Poonch region this year.
In May this year, the bodies of two soldiers killed during an encounter were mutilated in Kashmir’s Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch near the Line of Control by the BAT team. The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier said that the trail of blood on Roza Nala clearly showed that the killers returned across the Line of Control.
The encounter took place hours after security personnel had killed two suspected militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Keran sector in Kupwara. Earlier on Thursday, security forces had gunned down three suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in an encounter that lasted six hours in Kakapora area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.