Srinagar: A Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were killed while one more jawan was injured when militants attacked two adjoining camps of Army and the paramilitary force at Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir.
The heavily-armed terrorists attacked the two camps belonging to Rashtriya Rifles and Border Security Force late last night, leading to a fierce gun-battle with the security forces.
The terrorists, believed to be about three to four in number, escaped after an intense two-hour gun battle, said reports.
Following the firefight, BSF personnel, who was hit by bullets, succumbed to his injuries later, a Home Ministry spokesperson said in New Delhi.
The martyred jawan has been identified as Constable Nitin while the injured personnel is Constable Pulwinder. Both belong to the 40th battalion of the BSF, officials said.
Pulwinder is now out of danger after being admitted to RR camp hospital, said reports.
A local journalist, Khursheed Aalam who lives less than half-a-kilometre from the spot, said over the phone that the attack began with heavy firing. “Now after half-an-hour of the apparent initial attack and retaliatory action, intermittent firing is going on,” he said at the time.
The camp, which spreads across a vast area, has been attacked either from across the river or from behind Janbazpora locality along the Baramulla-Handwara road, he said.
A local resident said that after initial burst of gunfire and what appeared to be two grenade blasts, occasional firing happened inside the camp. Also, gunfire could be heard from the nearby Border Security Force camp.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval discussed the incident and necessary instructions have been given to the forces.
Singh also spoke to Director General of BSF K K Sharma and asked him to provide all possible treatment to the injured jawan.
Search and combing operations in the area have now ended, reports said.
Foreign Affairs Advisor to Pakistan PM, Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan NSA Nasir Janjua and Indian NSA Ajit Doval had made contact after the recent tensions and agreed to scale down hostilities along the LoC.
This was the first major attack on security forces by terrorists after the Indian Army launched surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan occupied Kashmir last week.
The attack comes despite intelligence inputs about possible terrorist attacks on security installations in Jammu and Kashmir following the operations in PoK on September 29.
The strike comes exactly a fortnight after terrorists struck at army brigade headquarters at Uri, 102 kms from Srinagar, killing 19 soldiers.
BSF Inspector General (Kashmir) Vikash Chandra told PTI that, "There could be few more terrorists (involved in the attack), may be two more, but that is not confirmed as of now."
He said the firing started about 10:30 pm on Sunday night after the Border Security Force men detected some "suspicious movement" in the vicinity of their camp that they shared with the 46 Rashtriya Rifles of the army.
"Our camp is co-located with the RR. The boys on sentry duty detected suspicious movement and when fire came in they came out of the bunker to effectively take on the terrorists.
Jawan Nitin was grievously injured when a grenade lobbed by terrorists hit him," he said.
The boys retaliated and repulsed the attack and did not allow the terrorists to enter the camp, the BSF chief in Kashmir Valley said, adding the terrorists melted into the darkness and a search operation is on.
He added that another jawan Pulwinder was hit on his leg during the exchange of fire and both were rushed to hospital in an army vehicle where Nitin succumbed to injuries.
Chandra said the terrorists attacked the camp from a corner where it shares the perimeter with a civilian locality.
"A GPS set, a compass and a wire cutter has been recovered from the spot where militants were holed up opposite the camp. Investigations are underway," he said.
Senior BSF officials said the slain constable Nitin (24) hailed from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh and had joined the border guarding force in October 1992.
Meanwhile, another ceasefire violation by Pakistan took in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. BSF post in Gurdaspur's Chakri village was reportedly attacked by Pakistan Rangers early on Monday morning. Anil Paliwal, IG BSF said to ANI that BSF opened fire after suspected infiltration in the area.
Pakistan also violated ceasefire in Shahpur sector along the LoC in Poonch district on Monday.
