Three suspected foreign militants were killed on Monday afternoon ending the 48-hour-long gun battle at Pampore on the outskirts of Srinagar that resulted into death of two Captains, two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and a civilian. The four-storey Government building where militants had taken positions after attacking a CRPF convoy on Saturday suffered extensive damage during the exchange of fire. Army said a large quantity of arms and warlike stores have been recovered from the encounter site.
“The building had several rooms and hence the operation took time. They (slain militants) were foreigners and heavily armed,” Major General Arvind Dutta, General Officer Commanding of anti-insurgency Victor Force, told reporters at the encounter site.
Maj Gen Dutta said the first priority of the security forces was to secure the lives of over 120 civilians trapped inside the building. “Our main focus was to evacuate people to safety. We launched a joint operation and used bulletproof vehicles to evacuate the civilians from the building,” he added.
The security forces suffered no more casualties on the last day of the operation but the authorities had to impose curfew-like restrictions in nearby Pampore town where people raised slogans in support of militants and attempted to march towards the besieged building complex.
The buildings housed Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) and comprised scores of rooms and halls. The outer walls of the building were perforated with bullets while the upper storey and attic caught fire during the heavy exchange of fire.
A senior officer on the encounter site said that the holed-up militants fought with plan as they had the advantage of taking position in a strong building.
Sources said that the security forces had been instructed on the culminating day to take their time to finish the operation without any further casualties.
The encounter turned out to be the bloodiest faceoff this year in Kashmir between security forces and militants. It began on Saturday afternoon when militants attacked a CRPF convoy on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway killing two head-constables DK Rana and Bhola Nath. A dozen CRPF personnel including a Deputy Commandant were wounded in the initial attack. Soon after the attack, the militants rushed into the EDI building, which was filled with employees and other civilians at that time.
The civilians were evacuated with difficulty but a 45-year-old gardener Abdul Gani Mir was hit by bullets who later succumbed to his injuries.
On the second day of the encounter on Sunday, Army lost three parachute commandos of the elite Para regiments in a bid to eliminate the holed-up militants. During the pre-dawn operation Captain Pawan Kumar received a volley of fire while attempting to scale up the walls of the building. He was airlifted to Base Hospital but could not survive. Another commando of the elite Special Forces lance Naik Om Prakash received fatal injuries in the afternoon.
The situation turned precarious when Army lost third paratrooper Captain Tushar Mahajan in the late evening bid to clear the building. Mahajan had been called from frontier Kupwara district to track down the ultras suspected to be affiliated with lashkar-e-Tayyeba outfit. After Mahajan’s death, the operation was held for the night.
The security forces remained clueless on the identity of the militants and their affiliation. This is for the first time that no militant outfit claimed responsibility nor did they own the cadre. However, United Jehad Council chief Syed Salahuddin announced to reward the slain militants and threatened to continue such attacks on the “Indian establishment”. Two of the three slain militants were wearing pheran, a long woolen robe Kashmiris wear during winters.
The militants did not attempt to escape from the encounter site nor did they come out of the building. “There was no chance for escaping. The buildings were completely besieged while the rear side is the bank of River Jhelum,” a paramilitary officer said.
People in dozens of adjacent villages raised slogans in favour of militants. Sources said that songs were played on Public Address System of several mosques while women sang songs to back up holed-up militants. The situation was reminiscent of early 1990s, a resident of Pampore town, Ghulam Qadir, said on phone.
The authorities have issued advisories to people against venturing towards the encounter sites.