Terrorists opened fire on an army truck in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir at around 3 pm on Thursday.
After this the truck caught fire, in which 5 soldiers were martyred. The army suspects that unknown terrorists also threw grenades at the truck. This is what started the fire.
In a statement issued by the Northern Command Headquarters, it was told that the truck carrying the soldiers was going from Bhimber Gali towards Poonch. It was raining. Visibility was also very less. The terrorists took advantage of this. A jawan has also been seriously injured in the attack. He has been admitted to the army hospital in Rajouri.
It was also told in the statement that the soldiers who were martyred belonged to the Rashtriya Rifles Unit. They were deployed in the ongoing operations against the terrorists in the area.
Earlier, an army official had told that the soldiers died due to fire in the truck. It was also suspected that the truck caught fire due to lightning.
On January 11 this year, an army officer and two soldiers were martyred in the Machil sector of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir.
All three were soldiers of the Chinar Corps of the Indian Army. This team of one JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer) and 2 OR (Other Ranks) had left for regular operation. Due to the snow, his car slipped and fell into a deep gorge.
The names of those killed were Naib Subedar Purushottam Kumar, Havaldar Amrik Singh and Constable Amit Sharma.
In December last year, an army truck fell into a ditch at Jema in Sikkim, in which 16 soldiers were martyred.
The army had two more vans. All the three vehicles left for Thangu from Chatan. On the way, the truck skidded at a turn and fell into the ditch. In this accident, 4 soldiers were seriously injured, who were later airlifted.
Last year also in November, 3 jawans were hit by an avalanche in Machil area of Kupwara. 2 jawans were safely pulled out from under the snow.
Five jawans of 56 Rashtriya Rifles were on routine patrol when the incident took place. The rescue operation started as soon as the information about the accident was received, but by the time the jawans were evacuated, 3 had died.
