By IANS
Srinagar : Heavily armed guerrillas Wednesday ambushed an Indian army convoy on the strategic Srinagar Leh highway, killing an army trooper and wounding six. The attack came on a day when an Indian team was preparing to set off on a Siachen glacier expedition.
Police said guerrillas fired indiscriminately from their automatic weapons at the convoy near Ganiwan on the Srinagar Leh highway, 53 km from here in north Kashmir Ganderbal district.
“One army trooper died on the spot while six soldiers were injured in the firing,” a senior police officer told IANS here.
He said the injured troopers including a soldier of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were evacuated to sub-district hospital Kangan for treatment.
The escorts of the convoy also returned the fire. Sources said the guerrillas fled towards an adjoining village.
Army, paramilitary and police reinforcements were rushed to the spot.
“The area has been surrounded for searches,” the officer said.
Traffic on the Srinagar Leh highway was halted, as security forces were busy searching the area.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Meanwhile, a 20-member team comprising cadets from the Indian Military Academy, the Rashtriya Indian Military College and the National Cadet Corps, as also a few civilians nominated by the Indian Mountaineering Association, will undertake an eight-day, 24-km trek to the 16,000-foot high Kumar Post on the Siachen glacier, where the heights rise up to 22,000 feet and temperatures plummet to minus 50 degrees Celsius.
The team – accompanied by 10 army glacier experts – was flown to Leh Wednesday where they will undergo one week of acclimatisation, followed by a four-day orientation course at the same place.