Four Indian Army personnel killed in road accident while travelling from West Bengal to Sikkim

Four Indian Army personnel died in a road accident while commuting from West Bengal to Sikkim on Thursday. The group — which belonged to a unit from Binaguri in West Bengal — had been heading from Pedong in Kalimpong district to Zuluk along the Silk Route. The incident took place in Pakyong District.

According to details shared by Indian Army officials, the deceased include driver Pradeep Patel from Madhya Pradesh, craftsman W Peter from Manipur, Naik Gursev Singh from Haryana and Subedar K Thangapandi from Tamil Nadu.

The development comes mere hours after six cadres of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) were killed in an exchange of fire with security personnel in Telangana. Police said two Greyhound commandos (members of the elite anti-naxal force of Telangana Police) were also injured in clash and later shifted to a hospital.

The exchange of fire took place at around 6:45 am in the forest area of Mothe village under Karakagudem police station limits after the armed maoists opened fire on the patrolling police party. An official release said the police had later found six bodies clad in olive green clothes who were cadres of the Bhadradri Kothagudem-Alluri Sitharamaraju Divisional Committee.

Earlier this week an Army soldier was injured after terrorists opened fire at the Sunjwan military station in Jammu. As per Defence officials, terrorists fired from a stand-off distance outside the base.

The Indian Army also successfully eliminated three terrorists attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control (LoC) in Machhal and Tangdhar sector of Jammu and Kashmir last week.

"Credible inputs were received from intelligence agencies, which was further corroborated by J-K Police regarding likely infiltration attempts from these areas. Based on the inputs, troops of the Indian Army, JKP and BSF laid ambushes on likely infiltration routes in both Machhal and Tangdhar sector," an official release said last Thursday.

(With inputs from agencies)