Two Junior Commissioned Officers of the Army were martyred while two senior officers were grievously injured along with seven others, including five women, in yet another audacious terror strike on Sunjwan military station by suicide squad (fidayeen) of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in the wee hours of Saturday.
Earlier, the military station was attacked by Pakistan-based lashkar-e-Tayyeba on June 28, 2003, in which 12 soldiers were martyred and seven others injured. So far, the Indian Army has managed to neutralise at least three heavily armed terrorists inside the military station located along the bypass road on the outskirts of Jammu. The operation inside the military station which started before daybreak was still going on till going to Press. Armoured vehicles were deployed to launch the final assault.
The Indian Army has lit up the entire area and is moving cautiously to avoid any collateral damage due to the presence of families of Army jawans inside the camp. Elite para commandos of the Indian Army have been called in to handle the operations on ground zero while Army helicopters were carrying out aerial reconnaissance of the whole area to keep a vigil on the movement of the holed-up terrorists in the built-up area.
High alert has been sounded across Jammu following the fidayeen strike. The schools in the close vicinity were closed down and traffic was diverted to the bypass road by the local authorities.
Meanwhile, a woman succumbed to bullet injuries received during a fresh incident of ceasefire violation along the loC in Nowshera in Rajouri late on Saturday.
Till late evening, the Army commandos cleared more than 150 houses on the military complex by shifting the occupants to safer places. Ministry of Defence Spokesman in Jammu lt-Col Devendra Anand told waiting mediapersons outside the main gate of the military station late on Saturday, “in the ongoing operations in Sunjwan, the Army has killed three heavily armed terrorists”.
lt-Col Anand confirmed the terrorists were wearing Army combat dress and carrying AK-56 Assault Rifles, large quantity of ammunition, hand grenades, etc. The Defence Spokesman confirmed that terrorists’ belongings clearly indicate that they were Jaish-e-Mohammad cadre.
Following the fidayeen strike, the State Assembly also witnessed fireworks with members of the Treasury and Opposition benches resorting to slogan shouting. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti also chaired a high-level security review meeting in the wake of the terror strike. “Deeply disturbed by the terrorist attack in #Sunjwan today. My heart goes out to the injured & their families,” the CM tweeted.
Making a statement in the Assembly, Minister for Revenue and Parliamentary Affairs AR Veeri said that at about 4.10 am a group of fidayeen attacked Sunjwan military station (36 Brigade) resulting in death of Subedar Madan lal Chowdhary and Subedar Mohammad Ashraf Mir, besides four others, including a civilian, got injured.
He said during the operation, Col Rohit Solanki, Havaldar Abdul Hamid and lance Naik Bahadur Singh and Neha D/O of Subedar Madan lal Chowdhary got injured who were initially shifted to Military Hospital Satwari and afterwards to Government Medical College, Jammu for treatment.
The Minister said the exact number of fidayeen is still not known but as per the initial call received at Police Control Room (PCR) Jammu at around 4.55 this morning, four to five terrorists are involved in the attack.
The quick reaction teams of the Indian Army and reinforcements were immediately rushed to the spot to contain the terrorists inside one of the buildings.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday targeted the BJP after terrorists attacked the Sunjwan camp killing two junior commissioned officers (JCOs), and said the party should be “begging forgiveness” of the nation for its “abject mishandling” of Jammu & Kashmir.
In a Twitter duel with BJP national spokesman GVl Narasimha Rao, the National Conference (NC) leader said, “Forget about the Valley or the border even Jammu city is not safe under you guys (including your allies) so stop obfuscating & start explaining how you’ve managed to mess things up so spectacularly.”
In response to Rao’s tweet demanding action against Akbar lone, Omar said, “You let us worry about the MlA. You on the other hand should be begging forgiveness of the nation for your abject mishandling of J&K over the last few years both at the Centre & with your coalition partner (PDP in J&K).”
Rao had asked the former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister to remove Akbar lone from his party instead of backing the MlA’s “pro-Pak rants”. “@OmarAbdullah Please stop this drama. Your insistence on not saying (doing) anything more says it all. You are backing your MlA for his Pro-Pak rants. Expel MlA from party NOW! Try & redeem your party from this MlA’s rants and your dad’s provocative recent statements on Kashmir!” the BJP national spokesman had said in a tweet.
Rao was referring to Omar’s earlier tweet wherein he had said the party would not say anything more on the issue of lone’s pro-Pakistan slogans in the Assembly. The party has already distanced itself from the MlA’s remarks and condemned it.