Rising Terrorism In J&K, 5 Army Soldiers Killed

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What has happened?

A junior commissioned officer (JCO) was among five Army personnel killed in a gunfight with a group of terrorists holed up in a hideout at Surankote in the frontier Jammu district of Poonch on Monday,
Making this the highest number of casualties suffered by the armed forces in a single encounter in J&K this year.
By evening, the operation to smoke out the terrorists had spread beyond the initially targeted hideout in the forested Chamrer area of Surankote to adjoining Bhangai village of Rajouri district.

“The operational area is the same. The terrorists moved to the other frontier location to possibly escape being hemmed in by the advancing security forces,” an official said.
The slain JCO, Naib Subedar Jaswinder Singh, and two of the four soldiers killed in action – Naik Mandeep Singh and sepoy Gajjan Singh – were from Punjab.
The other two, sepoys Saraj Singh and Vaisakh H, were from UP and Kerala respectively.
Since January, eight Army personnel have died fighting terrorists in Jammu division alone.
Three others were killed in ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control.

Over the past nine months, the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri have seen heightened terrorist activity, leading to several encounters with security forces.
On August 6, two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in an encounter in Bhangai village of Rajouri.
Prior to this, on July 8, two heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists were gunned down as the Army foiled an infiltration bid in Sunderbani sector of Rajouri.
Two soldiers were killed in firing by terrorists in the Dadal area.
On August 9, a joint team of security forces busted a terrorist hideout at Mendher in Poonch district and seized a cache of arms and ammunition, including AK-47 rifles and China-made pistols and grenades.
Ten days later, a JCO and a terrorist were killed in an encounter in the Kangota area of Rajouri’s Thanamandi tehsil.

There has been a surge in targeted killing of civilians which includes prominent citizens and non-locals in the Valley.
Last week, Makhan Lal Bindroo, a well-known pharmacist in Srinagar was killed by terrorists.
The Resistance Front (TRF), which the police believe is a front for the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has claimed responsibility for the killing.
J&K police said last week that 28 civilians have been killed by terrorists this year, seven in the last week alone.
“Out of 28, five persons belong to the local Hindu/Sikh community and two non-local Hindu labourers,” police said.

The killings come at a time when a number of Union ministers have been visiting the Union Territory as part of the government’s outreach programme.
The Centre had told Parliament earlier this year that terrorist violence in J&K has reduced significantly after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
“The number of terrorist incidents has reduced during 2020 by 59% as compared to 2019 and 32% up to June, 2021 in comparison with the corresponding period up to June, 2020,” it had said.