5 Army personnel dead, 5 critically injured in Poonch accident

Rajouri, Dec 24: A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) among five Army personnel lost their lives while five others received critical injuries in a road accident involving an Army vehicle in the Poonch district of the Pir Panjal region.

Officials said that the accident occurred near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Mankote Balnoi area of the Mendhar subdivision on Tuesday evening.

“A 2.5-ton Army truck met with an accident as it fell into a 300-feet deep gorge,” the officials said.

Army in its official statement released through Jammu-based Defense spokesman said that this 2.5-ton vehicle was part of a convoy of six vehicles which were plying on the operational track and it went off the road into a nallah.

“The operational track is on this side of the LOC fence while the time of the accident was around 5:20 pm,” the statement said.

The Defence spokesman said that 10 Army personnel were travelling in the vehicle and five died in the mishap on the site while five others were evacuated from the site of the accident in critically injured condition.

He said that the critically injured Army personnel were rushed to Army Hospital in Poonch.

The Army has ruled out any sort of terrorist incident involving the accident saying that the Army posts on the LoC were only 130 meters from the accident site while the other vehicle was hardly 40 meters from the ill-fated vehicle.

The Northern Command on a post on microblogging site X said, “Lieutenant General M V Suchindra Kumar and all ranks of Dhruva Command extend their deepest condolences on the tragic loss of five brave soldiers. Dhruva Command stands firm with the bereaved families in this hour of grief. All ranks of White Knight Corps extend their deepest condolences. The injured personnel are receiving medical care.”