Army Chief visits J&K after Rajouri flareup

Brigadier, 3 other officers are removed after civilian deaths

SRINAGAR, DEC. 25 Amid reports that the Centre is worried over the resurgence of militancy and increased terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch-Rajouri districts, the Chief of Army Staff, Gen.

Manoj Pande, on Monday visited the sensitive bor-der belt to take a first-hand assessment of the situation.

A defence spokesman in Jammu said Gen. Pande was briefed by local Army commanders on the ongo-ing joint operation against the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militants involved in Thursday’s terror attack in Poonch’s Dera ki Gali area. Naiks Birender Singh and Karan Kumar and Rifleman Gautam Kumar and Chandan Kumar fell in the line of duty and three other jawans of the 48 Rashtriya Rifles were critically injured in a sneak attack on two vehi-cles — a Maruti Gypsy and a 1-ton tuck.

The Army said in a post on X: “Gen. Manoj Pande #COAS visited #Poonch sector and was given an update on the prevalent security situation. #COAS interacted with comman-ders on ground, exhorted them to conduct the opera-tions in the most profes-sional manner and remain resolute & steadfast against all challenges”.

The visit came also amid widespread public out-rage over the killing of three residents of Poonch’s Topa Pir village, allegedly due to torture in Army custody. The slain were among more than a dozen civilians detained by the Army for question-ing in connection with the terror attack

The Visit came also amid widespread public outrage over the killing of three residents of Poonch’s Topa Pir village, allegedly due to torture in Army custody