Jammu: Around 30 people have been detained for questioning so far as security forces conducted a massive search operation to track down the terrorists who ambushed an Army truck in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch killing five personnel last week, officials said on Sunday.
Necessary action is being taken against the terrorists responsible for the deadly attack, the Army’s Northern Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi said during an interaction with the personnel who survived the ambush in the dense forest area of Bhata Dhurian on Thursday.
A stretch of the Jammu-Poonch national highway which was closed following the ambush was reopened for vehicular traffic on Sunday.
In a tweet on its official handle, the Army’s Northern Command shared Lt Gen Dwivedi’s visit to the Command Hospital in Udhampur and interaction with the survivor.
“Dwivedi interacted with the survivor…and assured that necessary action is underway,” it tweeted along with two pictures of the soldier.
Five soldiers were killed and one was injured after the terrorists attacked the lone Army truck, which was carrying eatables for iftar to a nearby village.
The Army’s northern commander visited the attack site on Saturday.
The Bhata Dhurian forest area has for long remained a preferred infiltration route for terrorists from across the Line of Control because of its topography, dense forest cover and natural caves.
Dwivedi reviewed the security in the border area and the ongoing combing operation to track down the terrorists.
The Northern Command said in a tweet that he was briefed on the actions undertaken so far and exhorted the troops to be steadfast in their resolve.
While the search operation was underway amid a high alert in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, vehicular movement on the Jammu-Poonch highway resumed Sunday morning after remaining suspended since Thursday evening, officials said.
They said traffic was earlier diverted to other routes to secure the highway which connects the twin border districts with Jammu.
Some of the people who passed through the scene of the attack said a traffic signboard put up by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) bore three bullet marks and the road stretch was strewn with vegetables and fruits.
The officials said around 30 people have been detained for questioning so far.
“Among those rounded up are two couples from Degwar in Poonch — Iqbal and his wife Mudifa and Salam Din and his wife Rashida,” an official source said, adding further investigation was underway.
The slain soldiers were from a Rashtriya Rifles unit deployed for counter-terror operations.
