Two officers and five soldiers of the Indian Army were martyred in a terrorist attack on an Army unit in Jammu and Kashmir’s Nagrota on Tuesday. Army personnel killed three terrorists and rescued two women, two children and 12 soldiers who had been trapped in a hostage-like situation.

The attack took place early on Tuesday, when heavily armed terrorists disguised as policemen attacked an Army unit posted close to the Corps Headquarters in Nagrota, which is less than 15 km away from Jammu. They stormed into the offcers’ mess after throwing grenades. In the initial counteraction, one officer and three soldiers were killed, the Army’s Northern Command said in a statement.

The terrorists then entered residential buildings, where the families of some personnel were lodged. This led to a hostage-like situation.

Army personnel contained the situation and launched a deliberate operation to rescue the soldiers and their family members caught in the buildings and also to neutralize the terrorists.
The Northern Command said it had recovered the bodies of three terrorists. Operations to sanitize the region and ensure that there are no more terrorists are underway.

The attack on the Army camp in Nagrota is the latest major attack in the ongoing escalation of infiltration by terrorists from the other side of the Line of Control and border. The attack also comes in the midst of repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces, which the Indian Army has said often serves as covering fire to support infiltration by terrorists supported by the Pakistani defence establishment