[OneIndia] Around 30 people have been detained for questioning so far as security forces conducted a massive search operation to track down the holy warriors who ambushed an Army truck in Jammu and Kashmir
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
's Poonch killing five personnel last week, officials said on Sunday.
Necessary action is being taken against the holy warriors responsible for the deadly attack, the Army's Northern Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi said during an interaction with the personnel who survived the ambush in the dense forest area of Bhata Dhurian on Thursday. A stretch of the Jammu-Poonch national highway which was closed following the ambush was reopened for vehicular traffic on Sunday.
In a tweet on its official handle, the Army's Northern Command shared Lt Gen Dwivedi's visit to the Command Hospital in Udhampur and interaction with the survivor. "Dwivedi interacted with the survivor...and assured that necessary action is underway," it tweeted along with two pictures of the soldier.
Five soldiers were killed and one was injured after the holy warriors attacked the lone Army truck, which was carrying eatables for iftar to a nearby village. The Army's northern commander visited the attack site on Saturday.
The Bhata Dhurian forest area has for long remained a preferred infiltration route for holy warriors from across the Line of Control because of its topography, dense forest cover and natural caves. Dwivedi reviewed the security in the border area and the ongoing combing operation to track down the terrorists.
"Among those rounded up are two couples from Degwar in Poonch -- Iqbal and his wife Mudifa and Salam Din and his wife Rashida," an official source said, adding further investigation was underway. The slain soldiers were from a Rashtriya Rifles unit deployed for counter-terror operations.
Sources earlier said the attack was suspected to have been carried out by a group of three to four terrorists. The attackers possibly spent more than a year in Rajouri and Poonch and had adequate knowledge of the terrain, they added. The Jammu and Kashmir Gaznavi Force (JKGF) is said to be active in the area and its "commander", Rafiq Ahmed alias Rafiq Nayi, hails from the region.
Currently, three-four terrorist groups are active in the region of Rajouri and Poonch, the sources said. The holy warriors who ambushed the Army truck used steel core bullets, capable of piercing an armoured shield, and decamped with the soldiers' weapons, officials said on Sunday.
They said a sniper is believed to have targeted the truck from the front before the other holy warriors sprayed bullets and lobbed grenades on it. Experts from various agencies, including the National Security Guard (NSG) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), have visited the site of the attack over the past two days and have managed to get a clear picture of the bushwhack which was laid by the terrorists, the officials said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact...
members of the Gujjar and Bakarwal communities on Sunday visited an Army unit in the Akhnoor sector here to express their solidarity with the forces. Mohd Akram, who was leading the 113-member-strong community delegation, appealed to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to provide free hand to the Army in tackling the threat of cross-border terrorism.
"We moved from Banihal tehsil in Ramban district to Akhnoor some 25 years back when militancy was at its peak and it was the Army which provided relief to us and ensured that we did not face any problem. We strongly condemn the attack on the troops and our community stands with our soldiers," Akram told news hounds. He said the holy warriors are working at the behest of Pakistain to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in Jammu and Kashmir and should be dealt with sternly.
"We request the defence minister to provide a free hand to the Army to tackle with terrorism," he said. A defence front man thanked the community for its concern and said the Gujjars and Bakkarwals are one of the most victimised communities of Pakistain's state-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir since the early 90s.
"The community has suffered at length, frequently at the cost of precious lives and property at the hands of holy warriors supported from across the border. These valiant nomadic people have supported the Indian Army in counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations with great courage and conviction," the front man said.
Probe finds Lashkar carried out Poonch strike which killed 5 jawans
[OneIndia] Contrary to the claim made by the Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally
Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf
bannedthe group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
, investigations have found that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba was behind the Poonch attack in which five soldiers of the Indian Army were killed.
The security agencies are finding it hard to find the seven hard boyz of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba as they may have escaped through the dense forests. The attack site is 7 kilometres from the Bhimber Ghali at the Line of Control (LoC), which is a thickly forested belt on the Indian side of the LoC. Sources tell OneIndia that this was a well planned attack and the hard boyz were aware that post the hit, they would easily escape into the forest area.
The intent, the source said was to create panic and unrest ahead of the G20 meetings slated to be held in Jammu and Kashmir
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
. The investigations have also shown that the Army vehicle was attacked from three sides.
The Intelligence Bureau has learnt that of the seven terrorists, 3 were from Pakistain. They had crossed over from Pakistain and had hidden in the dense forests, the Intelligence had also found.
A bigwig said that this is a deliberate attack planned by Pakistain. This has been done to instigate violence in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistain has been plotting several such strikes since the abrogation of Article 370, which removed the special status granted to J&K.
The third G20 tourism meet is scheduled to be held in the third week of of May in Srinagar. Pakistain has objected to this. Furthermore the attack came on a day when Pakistain had announced that its foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto would be visiting India to attend the summit.
The hard boyz used rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles against the Rashtriya Rifle jawans who were travelling in a truck. The initial probe suggests that the truck caught fire due to a direct rocket-propelled grenade hit. The probe is also ascertaining if the hard boyz had set the truck ablaze.
Probe agencies ascertain original source of bullets used in Poonch attack
[OneIndia] The bullets that were used by the terrorists to attack an Army vehicle in Poonch, in which five jawans were killed, were left behind by the US troops in Afghanistan following the fall of the US-backed government in August 2021.
According to the investigation, a sniper is said to have targeted the truck from the front before two other terrorists sprayed bullets and lobbed grenades. The probe is also trying to ascertain if the steel core bullets used by the terrorists in targeting the Army truck were made in China or in the United States.
Such bullets were left by the US troops in Afghanistan while leaving Kabul. They are said to have fallen into the hands of the Taliban, which in turn could have been diverted to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
According to additional DGP, Jammu, Mukesh Singh, the use of Chinese made-steep core bullets used in the attack is under investigation.
Probe finds Lashkar carried out Poonch strike which killed 5 jawansProbe finds Lashkar carried out Poonch strike which killed 5 jawans
"The attack was carried out by two to three terrorists who are believed to be Pakistanis. We can't speak about the involvement of locals at this stage," Singh also said.
"Massive search operations are on in Bhatta Durrian forests backed by the intelligence agencies, to track down the terrorists involved in the attack. The operations are being coordinated regularly by top officials," Singh said.
A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is camping in Poonch. The forensics team is also looking into the issue. In all probability the NIA will take over the probe soon. Sources tell OneIndia that while the investigation is underway, a majority of the resources are being used to track down the terrorists who may have escaped into the dense forests.