J&K: Soldier killed in Uri as Army foils LoC infiltration bid; Chinar Corps expressed ‘deepest condolences’ | India News

SRINAGAR: Havildar Ankit Kumar of 9 Bihar Regiment was killed early Wednesday while fighting armed intruders near the Loc in Uri sector of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district — the third Army fatality in five days in counterterrorism operations, raising the year’s security death toll in J&K to 17.Army’s 15 Corps, or Chinar Corps, confirmed on social media the death of Kumar, 35, and expressed “deepest condolences” to the bereaved family.Sources said the infiltration bid was foiled, but the intruders exploited poor visibility and monsoon rain to retreat into PoK. It was the first such attempt in Uri since Operation Sindoor in early May when heavy Pakistani firing and shelling followed India’s destruction of terrorist infrastructure in PoK and Pakistan after the April 22 Pahalgam massacre that left 22 people dead, most of them tourists.“This is clear proof that old patterns of infiltration attempts backed by Pakistan will persist,” said Luv Puri, former UN counterterrorism official and Kashmir analyst. “In the current climate where renewed US-Pakistan engagement is being discussed, the purpose of the infiltration attempt seems to be to signal that nothing has changed and that shifting geopolitical winds may only have emboldened them to make this point.”The Uri clash came a day after the Army ended an 11-day offensive in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, where two soldiers — Lance Naik Pritpal Singh and Sepoy Harminder Singh of 19 Rashtriya Rifles — were killed and 10 personnel wounded before a terrorist was shot dead.Of the 17 security personnel killed in J&K operations this year, four have died in Kashmir and 13 in Jammu division. Security forces have killed 14 terrorists in Kashmir so far in 2025, among them three top Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives linked to the Pahalgam attack, gunned down in Srinagar on July 28.Tight security is in place for Independence Day events across Kashmir valley, with intensified patrols along the border. On Monday, soldier Banoth Anil Kumar died after falling into a deep gorge during a routine patrol near the LoC in Uri sector. He was from Telangana.