Two soldiers were killed in action on Saturday during a fierce gunbattle with terrorists in the Ahlan Gadole area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The encounter, which erupted this afternoon, also left a soldier and two civilians injured.
The firefight began when terrorists targeted an army patrol conducting an anti-terror operation in the forested region of Kokernag subdivision. The Indian Army’s special forces, including paratroopers, are involved in the ongoing operation aimed at flushing out the terrorists, who are believed to be foreign nationals.
This incident marks the second major encounter in Kokernag within the past year. In September 2023, a similar gunbattle in the Kokernag forest claimed the lives of a Commanding Officer, a Major, and a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
The Indian Army’s Chinar Corps, in a statement on X (formerly Twitter), reported that two civilians were injured due to what they described as “indiscriminate, desperate, and reckless firing by terrorists.” The injured civilians have been given immediate medical aid and evacuated from the area.
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Reinforcements have been dispatched to the region to bolster the ongoing efforts to neutralize the terrorists believed to be entrenched in the Ahlan Gadole forests. The operation remains active as security forces work to eliminate the threat.