The incident happened at Dera Ki Gali (DKG), in Poonch’s Surankote neighborhood. They were their route to support a coordinated counterterrorism operation that has been in progress in the region since Wednesday.
In less than a month, this is the second attack against the troops in the area.
The area is blocked off.
According to reports, two cars—a gypsy and a small truck—were traveling from Bufliaz in Surankote to Thanamandi in Rajouri, which is home to the 48 Rashtriya Rifles headquarters.
Terrorists, who seemed to have already prepared an ambush, ambushed the trucks as they got closer to Topa Pir.
The Army has set up barricades around the location.
There are operations going on in the 48 Rashtriya Rifles region.
J&K | Three Army personnel lost their lives while three others were injured in a terrorist attack on two military vehicles in the Thanamandi area in Rajouri sector. Indian Army troops also immediately retaliated after being attacked by terrorists. The troops were going to… pic.twitter.com/nlhywjMtn4
— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2023
The Rajouri-Poonch area is turning becoming a center for terrorist activity.
In recent years, the Rajouri-Poonch area has become more and more into a center for terrorist activity and significant attacks against the Army.
In two separate attacks in the area in April and May of this year, ten soldiers lost their lives.
It’s interesting to note that there was a hiatus in terrorist activity in this area from 2003 to 2021, but that activity has now restarted.
More than 35 soldiers have died in the area during anti-terror operations in only the last two years.
Two officers and five soldiers were slain last month.
A similar occurrence occurred last month when the army and its special forces in Rajouri’s Kalakote conducted a two-day anti-terror operation that resulted in the deaths of five troops, including two captains.
Joint operations in the Gulabgarh forest in the Kalakote area were started on November 19 in response to “specific intelligence” about the presence of terrorists, according to a defense official based in Jammu.
The attack also claimed the lives of two terrorists, among them a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who had received training in Afghanistan.