In a brazen terror attack barely 17 hours before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two-day visit to the State, militants on Monday ambushed an Army convoy killing eight jawans and injuring 19 others near Hyderpora area on the outskirts of the city.
The attack, the second in three days and the deadliest so far this year, was carried out by Hizbul Mujahideen as the pro-Pakistan militant claimed responsibility for it, saying the attackers reached their hideouts after inflicting casualties on the Army. Security has been beefed up across the State in view of the attack as Intelligence inputs suggested that the militants may try to carry out more such attacks during the VVIP visit.
Helicopters began hovering over Srinagar after the attack that shook the security grid ahead of the high-profile visit.
Observers say that the attack would weaken Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's argument for repealing Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Srinagar, which was being projected as a “militant-free” region. It also buttresses the Army's claims that Pakistan-backed militants were pushing in infiltrators through the line of Control to augment their cadre in the Valley.
Eyewitnesses said militants riding a motorbike, which they had earlier snatched from some students, reached Gulbarg Colony near Hyderpora Bypass at around 4: 30 pm when an Army convoy was passing the area. “Two terrorists ambushed the vehicles and resorted to firing. They also hurled grenades inside a vehicle”, a police spokesman said. The Inspector-General of Police, Abdul Gani Mir said five security force personnel have been killed.
However, sources in the police department confirm that eight soldiers have been killed and many others wounded.
“I saw at least two bodies being carried in a private vehicle,” said a photographer who reached the spot shortly after the shootout began. The grenade that exploded inside the vehicle caused maximum casualties, sources said. There was no trace of the attackers when the Army retaliated.
However, the fleeing attackers were intercepted by a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) party near Barzulla, a few hundred yards from the earlier shooting site. The militants opened fire again wounding a CRPF sub-inspector, a policeman and a woman.
The militants then boarded a black Santro car and sped from the place.
A high alert has been sounded and security forces have been asked to remain on look out for the car.
The students, whose bike was hijacked, told police that militants were armed with AK 47 rifles and spoke chaste Urdu, normally not spoken in Kashmir.
Intermittent firing was continuing in the area till late in the evening as security forces and police cordoned off a large area to track down the attackers.
According to sources, unmanned aerial vehicles were also pressed into service to carry out technical surveillance of Pir Panjal and Zabarwan mountain ranges amid inputs that militants armed with rockets had formed their base in the ridges of these mountains.
The tracking down of militants is essential in the wake of Prime Minister's arrival on Tuesday, a police source said.
Sources said the wounded soldiers were shifted to Base Hospital where six of them succumbed to their injuries. The Army convoy of 33 Rashtriya Rifles was on its way to Srinagar from leh. The convoy had entered the city through Ganderbal-Sumbal bypass.
Sources said CRPF soldiers, while shifting their wounded colleague to hospital, fired into the air at Karan Nagar outside the Shri Maharaja Harisingh Hospital.
Current News Service, a local news gathering agency said that Hizbul Mujahideen's spokesman Baliguddin told their office on phone that their “guerrilla squad” carried out the attack. He claimed that such attacks would be carried out in future also.
This is the second attack by suspected militants in the past three days. On Saturday, two policemen were shot dead at point blank range at Harisingh High Street area in the commercial hub of Srinagar.
Security agencies had issued a renewed alert in the wake of Saturday's attack. Frisking and surprise checking of vehicles was being carried out throughout the Valley, especially in the Capital city.
last week, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah chaired a Unified Command Headquarters meeting to alert security and Intelligence agencies in the wake of the high-profile visit and Amarnath yatra beginning June 28.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the killing of the soldiers describing it as an act of barbarism and cowardice.
In a message to the Army and to the bereaved families, the Chief Minister has expressed his solidarity with them and conveyed his heartfelt condolence over the loss of precious human lives and brave soldiers in the terrorist act.
Abdullah said such attacks will not shatter the morale of the security forces who have had great success in the past against the militant group.
“Such high-profile attacks are aimed at restoring the shattered morale of the militants while trying to demoralize the security forces,” he said.
PMO sources in Delhi said that there was no change in Singh's programme.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to reach here along with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on a two-day visit, during which he is expected to announce a package for border districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh and Gandhi will also launch a train service on a railway section between Qazigund in Kashmir and Banihal in Jammu region that will provide an all-weather link to the Valley.