Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi said some of the terrorists involved in the encounter in Rajouri district, which left five Army personnel dead, were retired Pakistani soldiers, PTI reported. Lt General Dwivedi, who paid floral tributes to the five soldiers on Friday, said Pakistan was attempting to inject foreign terrorists in J&K as local recruitment had stopped.
"We found that some of the terrorists were retired (Pakistan) soldiers. As there are no local recruits here, Pakistan is trying to bring foreign terrorists here. We are trying to eliminate all the foreign terrorists," he said.
A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander was among two terrorists killed in a 36-hour-long encounter with security forces on Wednesday and Thursday in the Bajimaal area of Darmsal. Five soldiers, including two captains, lost their lives in the encounter. One Army Major and two jawans sustained injuries in the operation.
The soldiers who laid down their lives were Captain MV Pranjal of Mangalore in Karnataka, Captain Shubham Gupta of Agra, Havaldar Abdul Majid of Ajote in J&K's Poonch, Lance Naik Sanjay Bist of Nainital and paratrooper Sachin Laur of Aligarh.
READ | 2 LeT Terrorist Killed In Encounter With Security Forces In J&K's Rajouri
Apart from Lt General Upendra Dwivedi, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and other senior Army officers also pad floral tributes to the soldiers after their mortal remains were brought to the Army General Hospital in Jammu.
The coffins of the Army personnel will now be sent to their native places from Jammu for their last rites, PTI reported.