A heavily-armed squad of two fidayeen, wearing Army fatigues, stormed a police station in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua district on Friday and killed three security personnel, including two CRPF jawans. Both the terrorists were killed in a fierce gun battle that lasted for five hours. Two civilians were also killed by the fidayeen while ten others, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, were injured.
Talking to the media, Inspector General of Police (Jammu Range) Danish Rana said, “A group of two militants of a fidayeen squad stormed Rajbagh Police Station in the wee hours and opened indiscriminate fire. Both of them were, however, neutralised by the joint team of the State Police, Army and CRPF jawans in a clinical operation.” “An investigation is in progress to track down the possible route these fidayeen might have taken to reach Rajbagh police station. Arms and ammunitions were also seized from their possession,” he added. A senior police officer told The Pioneer that the fidayeen carried huge quantity of arms and ammunition. “If we had not eliminated them in time they would have managed to survive for over 24 hours with ration and other supplies in their reserves,” he said.
Ironically, only two days ago Pak rangers had requested BSF counterparts to attend sector commander-level flag meeting to discuss repeated incidents of border firing and resuming peace on the border. Meanwhile, the attack triggered panic among people living close to the police station. Traffic was halted on the National Highway for over 10 hours to ensure safety of common passengers. Additional troops have been rushed to the spot and the Jammu-Pathankot Highway has been closed as a precautionary measure. Entire area in and around the police station has been cordoned off.
This is also the first major strike by any militant outfit since the formation of BJP-PDP Government in Jammu & Kashmir. Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the DGP of Jammu & Kashmir and took stock of the situation. Singh has directed the Home Secretary to closely monitor the situation. The attack also figured in the J&K Assembly with the Opposition members seeking an explanation from the Government on the incident.
Condemning the attack, Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed told the Assembly that it was a dastardly act aimed at derailing the democratic process after the overwhelming participation of people in the Assembly polls. The timing of the attack also raises several questions as the much -awaited meeting between the separatist leaders from the Kashmir valley and Pakistan High Commissioner was scheduled to take place in New Delhi on Sunday.
Intelligence agencies have already warned that the terror outfits based in Pakistan were aiming to spread the ‘arc of terror’ in otherwise peaceful Jammu region. The Army and Intelligence agencies have also expressed fears of infiltration by a big group of infiltrators. The fidayeens, suspected to be members of lashkar-e- Tayyeba (leT) militant outfit, may have entered inside the Indian territory taking advantage of the poor vigil along the water bodies close to the International border in the wee hours of Friday.
To reach National highway the fidayeens, aged between 22-25, are learnt to have hijacked a motorcycle of a local youth near Haria Chak nursery close the International border. In previous attacks on Hiranagar police station and an Army camp in Samba in September 2013, the fidayeen squad had used the same route to infiltrate inside the Indian territory. The Police late evening recovered badly mutilated body of the youth reported missing since early morning. The youth, identified as Joginder Kumar, resident of Kathua, became the first victim of fidayeens before they went berserk inside the Rajbagh police station.
According to eye witness reports,” the fidayeens dressed in combat uniform hijacked one load carrier after reaching Jammu-Pathankot National Highway in the wee hours and from there they headed towards Kathua. On reaching closer to Rajbagh police station the fidayeens used three passengers, including driver of the load carrier, as human shield to gain access inside the police station.
According to a lone survivor taken as hostage by the heavily armed men, “soon after the sentry on guard duty opened the gate of the police station the fidayeen opened indiscriminate firing and also lobbed grenades targeting the police personnel”. One civilian and sentry of J&K police were killed in the first burst of fire. As police personnel along with CRPF jawans present inside the police station took positions the fidayeen managed to take refuge inside one of the rooms on the ground floor. As information was flashed to police control room QRT teams from nearby army units along with army columns, JK police personnel and CRPF jawans also rushed to the spot and cordoned off the entire area.
The issue of fidayeen attack was raised by members in the state assembly as well. After making preliminary statement of facts Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh visited Rajbagh Police Station in Kathua and termed this a cowardly act.