Villagers to skip Eid after Army trucks was ambushed in Poonch

A village in Jammu and Kashmir has decided to give the Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations a miss.

The reason for the same is because an Army truck in Sangiote village was ambushed by terrorists in which five jawans lost their lives. The truck was carrying fruits and other items for an Iftar gathering meant to be held in Sangiote later on Thursday evening.

An Indian Express report said that the truck transported materials from the Basooni headquarters of the Rashtriya Rifles located in Balakote. Also, the vehicle had collected additional items during its journey from Bhimber Gali, where the Rashtriya Rifles has a significant presence due to the movement of Army convoys between Poonch and Rajouri.

Kya iftar jab hamare paanch jawan uss unfortunate haadse mein shaheed ho gaye (what iftar fast, when five of our jawans were mattered in an unfortunate incident), Sarpanch of the Sangiote panchayat Mukhtiaz Khan said.

Khan also said, " as soon as we got information about the terror attack. A pall of gloom descended on the village."

The attack took place on a day when Pakistan announced the its foreign minister, Bilwala Bhutto would be visiting India for the G20 summit. India's Intelligence agencies say that the attack was planned by the ISI to derail the visit. Pakistan has very often in the past carried out such attacks to derail bi-lateral ties. The Pathankot attack and Mumbai 26/11 attack are examples of this.

On Friday, at least 12 persons had been detained for questioning in connection with the Poonch attack. These persons are being questioned at various levels. Further the security agencies have pressed in drones, sniffer dogs to hunt for the terrorists, who they suspect are hiding in the dense forests of Jammu and Kashmir.

A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is also present at the spot. The central agencies is likely to take over the probe soon.