New Delhi: Colonel Manpreet Singh, commanding officer of the Army’s 19 Rashtriya Rifles, along with a major rank officer and a deputy superintendent of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, was killed Wednesday in an encounter with Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in J&K’s Anantnag district.
Several other security personnel were injured in the encounter, including one who suffered severe injuries.
Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that a joint team of the Army and the police was climbing up a steep hill based on an intelligence input about a terrorist hideout in the Kokernag area in southern Kashmir’s Anantnag. The suspicion was that a group of terrorists of Pakistan-backed terror group LeT were holed up at the hideout.
However, the security personnel came under heavy fire from the terrorists as they climbed up the hill. Sources said that the commanding officer, who was in the front along with others, was injured in the initial burst of fire.
The major and the DSP were injured but could not be evacuated in time since Army choppers were unable to land near the site of the encounter amid heavy gunfire. Sources added the terrorists opened fire at the chopper when it tried to land near the spot to evacuate the injured personnel.
While some personnel sustained bullet wounds, some were injured as a result of falling from the cliff, said sources, adding that the encounter is still underway and security forces have cordoned off the area to ensure that the terrorists are not able to escape.
This loss came a day after another jawan and a canine soldier were killed in an encounter with terrorists in Rajouri, also under the Northern Command.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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