5 Army personnel killed in blast during anti-terrorist operation in J-K

Five Army personnel were killed and a major was injured on Friday in an explosion triggered by terrorists in the thickly forested Kandi area in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district where an operation was underway to flush out terrorists, officials said.

The operation, still underway, was launched following inputs about the presence of a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an Army truck in Bhata Dhurian of Poonch district last month, in which five security personnel were killed.

Before Friday's attack, the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri have witnessed seven major terrorist incidents since October 2021 in which 29 people, including 22 Army personnel, have been killed.

As the anti-terrorist operation was underway, mobile internet facilities in the Rajouri area have been suspended.

According to a statement from the Army's Northern Command in the morning, its personnel have been conducting "relentless intelligence-based operations to flush out a group of terrorists