Breaching several layers of the multi-tier security grid along the line of Control (loC) in Akhnoor sector of Jammu, a group of heavily-armed terrorists on Monday stormed a make shift camp of General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) in Battal village of Jourian, killing three civilian labourers and leaving one more injured.
After an audacious strike on the Army’s artillery unit on the periphery of Nagrota-based 16 Corps headquarters on November 29, 2016, this is the first major attack since the beginning of the year in Jammu region.
According to a preliminary assessment by the security forces, the terrorists are believed to have infiltrated from across the loC through water channels.
Intelligence reports indicated these terrorists were waiting for the opportunity to sneak into India at one of the launching pads.
After sneaking into India, the heavily-armed terrorists also managed to cover a distance of 2 to 3 km from the loC to carry out the strike without facing any resistance in the forward area.
Surprisingly, even after storming the GREF camp the terrorists are believed to have faced no resistance for over 30 minutes.
They lobbed grenades and also punctured fuel tanks of parked vehicles to set them ablaze.
Before killing the three labourers the terrorists probably conducted thorough searches inside the camp and managed to escape undetected. Before fleeing, the terrorists left behind their bag which contained two combat jackets, one packet of almonds, four AK magazines, three grenades and bottles containing liquid explosive material.
luckily, 14 others inside the GREF camp managed to survive after giving a slip to the terrorists by hiding inside one of the rooms which was left unchecked by the militants. The Army later evacuated these men from the GREF camp to a safer location.
According to one of the key eyewitnesses, Nathu Ram, a private security guard of the GREF camp, “The group of terrorists stormed the camp shortly after 1.10 am. They lobbed grenades and fired on the labourers sleeping inside the room”.
Using liquid explosive material the terrorists tried to set ablaze GREF trucks parked in the ground and also torched the kitchen of the camp.
Jammu-based Defence spokesman lieutenant-Colonel Munish Mehta told The Pioneer, “The group of terrorists attacked the GREF camp around 1.15 am in Battal village of Jourian in which two labourers from Pratap Garh district of Uttar Pradesh and one from Jharkhand was killed. The deceased were identified as Salman Khan, Ramesh Tapano and Irshad Aalam. The injured was identified as Abdul Aziz.”
Following the strike, a high alert was sounded in the area as the group of terrorists managed to slip into the dense forests. Reinforcements were rushed to the spot to cordon off the entire area to prevent these terrorists from slipping away.
Several security check points were raised along the Jammu-Akhnoor and Jammu-Rajori-Poonch route to track down the terrorists. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her deputy Nirmal Singh condemned the terror strike in Akhnoor. leaders of Opposition parties also condemned the attack and questioned the BJP-PDP alliance Government over its failure to prevent terror strikes across Jammu.