The Army has released the names of the soldiers killed in early Thursday morning militant attack in South Kashmir region of Shopian.
According to the Army, among three soldiers killed, one is Kashmiri, Lance Naik, Ghulam Mohideen Rather, hailing from Marhama area of South Kashmir. While Sapper, Sreejith MJ, is from district Palakkad, Kerala and sepoy Vikas Singh Gurjar from Karouli district of Rajasthan.
The soldiers were killed in one of rare and deadliest night ambush by the militants at the village Chitragam in Shopian, around 70 km south of Srinagar at about 2 a.m. when they were returning from cordon and search operation.
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According to Srinagar based police spokesman the Army’s 44 RR, police counter insurgency force, Special Operation Group carried out the cordon and search operation at Kungnoo village after having information about the presence of militants. He said the operation concluded without any recovery.
However, when the forces were returning they were ambushed by the militants at Chitragam leading to injuries of six army personnel including two officers, Lt Colonel and a Major. Of six, three soldiers succumbed at the Army’s 92 base hospital in Srinagar on Thursday morning.
The sources said the troops were in five vehicles when their convoy came under militant attack. The exchange of fire continued for some time and later the militants took advantage of the darkness and escaped. With this attack, around 9 Army personnel were killed in less than two weeks and over 16 were wounded in three gunfights across the Kashmir region.
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“One lady Mst Taja wife of Ghulam Mohammed Mir of Chitragam, who was hit by a stray bullet inside her house during the cross fire also succumbed to her injuries,” the police spokesman said.
The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant outfit has claimed responsibility of the attack. In a telephonic statement to local news gathering agency, KNS, here, Hizb operational spokesperson, Burhan-ud-Din, claimed killing of five army men and wounding seven in the attack.
