Two soldiers killed in accidental blast near LoC in Uri

Two soldiers of the Rashtriya Rifles were killed in an accidental explosion near the Line of Control in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district. The injured soldiers succumbed despite treatment at an army hospital in Srinagar

Srinagar: Two soldiers were killed in an accidental blast near the Line of Control (LoC) in the Uri sector of J&K’s Baramulla district on Wednesday, officials said.

Official sources said that the incident occurred in the Kamalkote area of the Uri sector. The two soldiers had sustained critical injuries during the accidental explosion. “They have been identified as Arjun Jadhav and Vikram Balakrishna, both of whom belonged to Maharashtra. They were shifted after sustaining critical injuries to the army’s base hospital in the Badamibagh Cantonment area of Srinagar, but despite the best efforts of the doctors, they couldn’t be revived,” official sources said.

---

Both soldiers belonged to the 8 Rashtriya Rifles. The exact details as to how the explosion occurred are awaited. J&K has a 740-km-long LoC situated in the Baramulla, Kupwara, and Bandipora districts of the Valley.

In the Jammu division, the LoC is situated in Poonch, Rajouri, and partly in the Jammu district. In addition, the Union Territory has a 240-km-long International Border, running through the Samba, Jammu, and Kathua districts of Jammu division. The LoC is guarded by the army, while the international border is guarded by the Border Security Force (BSF).

Both the army and the BSF are deployed on the border to prevent infiltration, exfiltration, smuggling, and drone activity initiated from across the border. Hi-tech anti-drone equipment has been installed on the LoC and the international border to check the menace of drones into the Indian side of the border. These drones are used by terror outfits with the assistance of Pakistani forces to drop payloads of arms, ammunition, cash, and drugs into the Indian side. These payloads are picked up by the overground workers (OGWs) of the terrorist groups and then passed on to the terrorists operating in J&K to sustain terrorism.