Bodies of the four soldiers killed in an ambush yesterday in the Rajouri Sector were mutilated by terrorists before fleeing from the spot.

Joint teams of the Army, paramilitary forces and J&K Police immediately launched a massive operation to track down the terrorists involved in the incident.

Reports said that the bodies of the slain soldiers were found mutilated.

A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reached the ambush spot on Friday and collected samples of the bullets from there.

The People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), which is a proxy outfit of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The PAFF has released pictures of the Army’s gypsy and a truck that were damaged due to intense firing by a group of three to four terrorists.

Images from the site show the blood-soaked road, broken helmets of soldiers, rifle magazines, and shattered windscreens of the two Army vehicles. The possibility of the terrorists having carried away the weapons of the slain soldiers has not been ruled out.

The modus operandi of the ambush was similar to that at Bhatta-Durian in Mendhar (Poonch district) on 20 April where five soldiers were charred as the truck in which they were traveling caught fire after the terrorist attack. There too the terrorists had walked away with the sophisticated weapons of the slain soldiers.

Yesterday’s ambush at Dera-ki-Gali was the fourth such terror attack in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch where 20 soldiers, including two Captains, lost their lives this year.

The ambush happened on Thursday around 3:45 pm when two Army vehicles were carrying troops to the site of a cordon-and-search operation at Thanamandi. The terrorists had taken up positions at a height to target the Army vehicles. The photo released by PAFF shows that a civilian dumped was also caught in the crossfire and the Army truck hit it after the terrorists opened fire.

It is worth mentioning that the PAFF had also claimed responsibility for the attack on 5 May in the Kandi area of Rajouri where five soldiers were killed.

The Union Home Ministry banned PAFF earlier this year for its involvement in terror acts in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere. In its notification, the Home Ministry said that PAFF had been regularly issuing threats to security forces, political leaders and civilians working in Jammu and Kashmir from other states.

Terror attacks in Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi districts this year have claimed the lives of 54 persons, including 20 security forces personnel.