Srinagar: Two army soldiers, including a captain, were killed and at least one soldier was injured in a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) blast in the Akhnoor sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Jammu region on Tuesday (February 11).
An army official said that a suspected IED went off at Laleali in the Akhnoor sector during a routine patrol by soldiers, resulting in injuries to three troopers, of whom two have succumbed to injuries.
The deceased have been identified as Captain K.S. Bakshi and Mukesh, whose rank was not immediately confirmed.
“Own troops are dominating the area and search operations are underway. White Knight Corps salutes and pays tribute to the supreme sacrifice of two gallant soldiers,” the army’s Jammu-based White Knight Corps said in a post on X.
Earlier in the day, the PTI news agency reported that a mortar shell was discovered and defused by a bomb-disposal squad in Akhnoor.
“Some locals had discovered the shell in a canal near the Namandar village around 10 am,” PTI reported, quoting unidentified police officials as saying.
The fatal IED blast in Akhnoor is the second militancy-related incident within 24 hours in the Jammu division, where violence has witnessed an increase in the aftermath of the reading down of Article 370 by the Modi government in 2019.
On Monday, a sniper hiding inside a forested area in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) fired shots on army soldiers patrolling along the LoC in Rajouri district, resulting in a shoulder injury to a soldier who is believed to be stable.
On February 8, suspected militants opened fire on an army patrolling party near Baratgala in the Keri sector of Rajouri, prompting a search operation.
A mysterious explosion in the intervening night of February 4 and 5 along one of the infiltration routes from the LoC in Poonch district is believed to have killed some militants who were reportedly trying to cross over from PoJK.
However, officials have not confirmed the exact number of dead so far.
The same day, a suspected IED went off near the LoC in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch, following which a massive search operation was launched in the area.
An army soldier was killed in north Kashmir’s Sopore police district in an encounter with suspected militants in the intervening night of January 19 and 20. The militants had managed to flee from the area after the shootout.
On January 14, six army soldiers suffered injuries in a landmine explosion in Rajouri’s Nowshera sector.
Last year, more than four dozen army soldiers, including some officers, were killed in Jammu division by a new breed of highly trained militants armed with sophisticated weapons and modern gadgets who have carried out some of the deadliest ambushes and targeted attacks on the army.
