A soldier was killed and four were injured when militants ambushed a convoy of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Poonch on May 4. The IAF said the Air Warriors fought back by returning fire.
“In the process, five IAF personnel received bullet injuries and were evacuated to the nearest military hospital for immediate medical attention. One Air Warrior succumbed to his injuries later,” the IAF said.
Officials said the injured were flown to the Army hospital in Udhampur in a helicopter.
“An IAF vehicle convoy was attacked by militants in the Poonch district of J&K, near Shahsitar. Cordon and search operations are underway presently in the area by local military units. The convoy has been secured, and further investigation is under progress,” an IAF spokesperson said.
The spot where the militants opened fire from a close range is far away from the district headquarters. The Army’s Rashtriya Rifles evacuated the injured from the area, official sources said. The Army has launched a major combing operation in the area to trace the militants.
The Poonch-Rajouri belt, which shares 220km of the Line of Control with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), has seen a spurt in militant violence after the Centre scrapped Jammu & Kashmir’s special status in 2019. This is the third militant attack in 2024 in Rajouri-Poonch. In April, militants killed the brother of an Army jawan and a Village Defence Group member in separate attacks.
The May 4 attack came at a time when the Rajouri-Poonch belt of the Pir Panjal valley is preparing for the Lok Sabha election. The Rajouri-Poonch belt is going to polls in the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency on May 25.
