Seven Army personnel, including two officers, martyred in Nagrota attack; three terrorists killed

Jammu: Two Army officers and five jawans lost their lives in Jammu and Kashmir's Nagrota on Tuesday when militants in police uniform attacked an artillery unit.

The attack involved a hostage-like situation with 12 soldiers, two ladies and two children being held captive.

The Northern Command issued a statement today evening saying terrorists had forced their way into officers' mess by throwing grenades and firing at sentries.

They entered two buildings which were occupied by officers and their families, which led to a hostage-like situation, the Army said.

In the initial counter-attack, one officer and three soldiers were martyred. Later, in the rescue attempt one more officer and two jawans were killed.

#JKOps Statement on Terrorist Initiated Incident at Nagrota is attached @adgpi pic.twitter.com/rTG2xMxM7h — NorthernComd.IA (@NorthernComd_IA) November 29, 2016

The two officers who died fighting the terrorists were Major Gosavi Kunal Mannadir (33), a resident of Maharashtra's Solapur district, and Major Akshay Girish Kumar (31), a resident of Bengaluru in Karnataka, a defence spokesman said.

The other soldiers who were killed in the encounter were Havildar Sukhraj Singh (32), a resident of Gurdaspur in Punjab, Lance Naik Kadam Sambhaji Yeshowanttro (32), a resident of Nanded in Maharashtra, Grenadier Raghvendra Singh (28), a resident of Dholpur in Rajasthan, and Rifleman Asim Rai (32), a resident of Khotang in Nepal.

The details of the seventh solider were not given by the army saying his family was yet to be informed.

In the gunbattle, three terrorists were killed.

"Bodies of three terrorists have been recovered and operations are in progress to sanitise the complete area," the spokesman said, as per PTI.

Nagrota is the headquarters of Army's 16 corps.

It is about three kms from the Corps headquarters on the outskirts of Jammu city.

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Meanwhile, in view of the attack, Jammu-Srinagar National Highway has been closed for traffic in the area.

Also, the district administration has closed all schools in Nagorta tehsil as a precautionary measure.

On the other hand, an alert has been sounded in Jammu city.

(With Agency inputs)