Srinagar: A CRPF officer and four jawans were killed and three more injured after heavily armed JeM terrorists stormed one of its camps in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday. Two militants were also killed in the security forces’ retaliatory fire. A third militant was suspected to be present inside the camp.
“Two terrorists have been killed, so far. We suspect a third terrorist is hiding inside the camp. The operation has been suspended because of darkness,” a CRPF official said. He said that the gunmen in combat dress entered the 185th battalion camp at Lethapora outside the township of Awantipore at around 2 am firing AK 47 rifles and hurling grenades at the sentry.
CRPF spokesman Rajesh Yadav said that the soldiers inside the camp quickly responded to the attack and engaged the assailants in a fierce gun battle.
Strike follows leader’s death
A CRPF official said that the militants were carrying AK-47 rifles and under-barrel grenade launchers when they targeted the camp. After entering the camp, they took positions and the gunfight ensued.
The initial assault left one CRPF jawan dead and two wounded. Reinforcements from J&K police’s counterinsurgency SOG, the Army and the CRPF encircled the camp to supplement the effort to neutralise the attackers, the officials said.
During the exchange of fire, two militants were killed whereas three more CRPF jawans laid down their lives.
One of the injured jawans died in hospital later, raising the toll to five. The attack in Jammu and Kashmir took place days after a top JeM commander Noor Muhammad Tantray alias Noor Trali was killed in an operation by the security forces in Samboora.
