Militants perched on a mountain ridge ambushed an army convoy in Kathua district of Jammu on Monday, killing five soldiers and injuring another five.

The second militant attack in the Jammu region in two days, and the sixth in one month, suggested that militancy was spreading to newer areas.

The ambush at Badnotta village was also the first big attack on soldiers this year, although nine pilgrims visiting the Shiv Khori shrine were killed and dozens were injured in an attack last month in Reasi district, Jammu.

Senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh said the ambush took place in the Bani Assembly constituency, some 125km from the Pakistan border, suggesting Pakistani militants had penetrated into the deeper pockets of Kathua.

Local sources said the militants ambushed the vehicles, taking advantage of their high-altitude position, at 3.30pm, lobbing grenades and firing. Army officials initially played down the incident in informal conversations and said two soldiers had been injured.

By evening, reports came in of higher casualties — five dead and five injured. The army has not formally confirmed the casualties.

“We could hear the firing, though intermittently, for hours after the incident,” a local student said. “This entire area is forested. The place where the attack took place has several houses but they are scattered.”

Hundreds of soldiers have been rushed to the area to hunt down the militants. Sources said elite para commandos had been airdropped near the site to overcome the geographical barriers.

The Congress condemned the terror attack and said no amount of whitewashing, fake claims, hollow boasts and chest-thumping can “erase the fact that the Modi government remains a disaster” for security in Jammu and Kashmir.

The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, said the answer to the continuous terrorist attacks had to be strict action, not “hollow speeches and false promises”.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on X: “No amount of whitewashing, fake claims, hollow boasts and chest-thumping can erase the fact that the (Modi) government remains a disaster for the national security in Jammu and Kashmir.”

“When PR becomes an aim, gathering security intelligence through statecraft becomes a casualty,” he said, adding: “Our resolve to stand with the nation against terrorism remains resolute.”

Rahul said in a post in Hindi: “I pay my heartfelt tributes to the martyrs who made the supreme sacrifice for the motherland and offer my deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured soldiers.”

Hitting out at the Centre, he said: “The fifth terrorist attack within a month is a grave blow to the security of the country and the lives of our soldiers. The answer to the continuous terrorist attacks has to be strict action, not hollow speeches and false promises.”

PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said the attack was an indication of the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mehbooba said: "Condemn the terror attack in Kathua that claimed the lives of four soldiers. Tragic & equally shocking that they are losing their lives in the line of duty in places where one found little to no trace of militancy before 2019. Tells you all there is to know about the current security situation in J&K. Deepest condolences to their families."

Singh, the senior BJP leader, said Jammu districts were witnessing militancy after many years, some for the first time.

Singh said this was the third attack in Kathua district in the past one month, although the police have officially confirmed only two attacks.

“In the first instance, they slit the throat of Dr Amarjit Singh Sharma (a chemist) in the Hira Nagar area (a part of Kathua but close to the border),” Singh told The Telegraph.

“It was late evening (on June 9) and he possibly saw them moving and identified the (militants’) guide. Perhaps the guide was exposed and got him killed.”

The police have so far not confirmed militant involvement in the murder.

On June 11, militants knocked on a door, looking for water. When the family refused, correctly suspecting them to be militants, they fired and injured a civilian. A gunfight followed in which a CRPF man and two militants were killed.

Police sources said dozens of militants are active in Jammu, most of whom have freshly sneaked in from Pakistan.

On Sunday, a militant attack on a security installation in Jammu’s Rajouri district injured a soldier. A counter-insurgency operation was launched but the militants remain at large.

The last major attack on soldiers in the Jammu region took place in December, when four soldiers were killed in an ambush in Poonch. The army is alleged to have tortured three local Gujjar civilians to death in an apparent act of revenge.

An air force man was killed and four were injured in an attack in Poonch in May.

The army lost two soldiers in twin gunfights in Kulgam on Saturday. Six militants were killed as well.

Jammu and Kashmir director-general of police R.R. Swain recently set a deadline of three months for ending militancy in Jammu.

Last year, Union home minister Amit Shah had set a similar target after seven Hindu civilians were killed in Dhangri village of Rajouri. But militancy continues unabated.

The Poonch and Rajouri districts, also called the Pir Panjal region, have borne the brunt of the militant resurgence in the Jammu region following the 2019 scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

The militants are now gradually spreading their operations far and wide — to Reasi, Udhampur, Jammu (district), Samba and now Kathua.