Srinagar: Two soldiers were killed and four others, including an officer, were injured in a fierce encounter in the Kandi forest area of the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Friday.

A defence spokesperson said that the army had launched an operation in the Kandi forest area to flush out terrorists who were responsible for a recent attack on the army truck in which five soldiers were killed.

During the operation, “terrorists triggered explosives in retaliation, in which the army suffered two casualties and four more soldiers, including an officer, were injured and have been evacuated to Command Hospital, Udhampur,” he added.

Officials said that a group of two to four terrorists involved in several attacks on civilians and armed forces was believed to be trapped. The Army’s unmanned aerial vehicles have also been deployed to track the terrorists. Internet has been snapped in the entire Rajouri district as the terrorists are suspected to be in touch with their associates in the area and the handlers in Pakistan through certain apps with the help of the internet.

Nine soldiers had been killed in two attacks in the Poonch-Rajouri belt in October 2021 and five more in another attack in August 2022. With the beginning of the current year, heavily armed terrorists left seven children of the Hindu community dead in twin attacks at Dhangri village in Rajouri.

“Indian Army columns have been conducting relentless intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists involved in the ambush on an army truck in Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in Jammu region”, the spokesman said in a press release.

“On specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in Rajauri sector, a joint operation was launched against a group of terrorists well entrenched in a cave. The area is thickly vegetated with rocky and steep cliffs”, he added.

“As per initial reports a group of terrorists are trapped in the area. There is a likelihood of casualties in the terrorist group.The operation is still in progress”, the army spokesman said.